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No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 4:28 am
by christopher:::
My family and i arrived in NY last Friday. Today whilst at Border's bookstore i couldn't find one Theravadan book among well over 100 books on Buddhism... Everything available was by a Mahayana author, primarily Tibetan and Zen Buddhist. The Dhammapada was probably the only exception. Is this the case elsewhere as well? I had found books by Ajahn Chah and Joseph Goldstein last year, but i was wondering- with so many wise Bikkhus and Ajahns who make their dhamma talks available for free online, do they actively avoid publishing books?

:reading:

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 4:47 am
by Clayton
No, there are some books published, but a lot of Theravada teachers make their work available online (including books) for free out of compassion. This has been a great benefit to me in my practice. Check out Amazon if you want hard copies...

Clayton

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 4:56 am
by Ben
Hi Christopher

Great to hear you're in NY. I hope you and your family are having a great time!
Sadly, its the case most places I've been as well. I think the main issue is that booksellers have a very thin margin from which to pay for rent, wages, and all their other costs and then make a profit, so they will order in what they know will sell. About three years ago the closest thing to a Theravada book I bought in Borders was Jack Kornfield's 'After the ecstacy, the laundry'. And it was disappointing!

Last year I revisited the Theosophical Bookshop in Melbourne. Despite the Theosophical Society playing a pivotal role in bringing Theravada to the West in the late 19th Century, most of the books in the Buddhism section were of that bastard-hybrid genre of "New Ageified" Tibetan and Zen. You know, that touchy-feely stuff that you wouldn't touch with a barge poll.
kind regards

Ben

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:03 am
by Mawkish1983
Isn't Analayo's Satipatthana book a best seller?

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:45 am
by Ben
Yes, but again, amongst whom?
I would say amongst Theravadin practitioners in the West.
And how many would they number in any town and city?
Its all about market size.
kind regards

Ben

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 6:12 am
by Mawkish1983
Hmmm. That's why there's a whole section in the multistory bookstore in Manchester devoted to Bibles but not even a shelf of Physics books.

There's always amazon :)

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 6:27 am
by Ben
Mawkish1983 wrote:There's always amazon :)
Don't forget your online Dhamma booksellers:

-- http://www.pariyatti.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
-- http://www.dhammabooks.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

metta

Ben

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:22 am
by PeterB
Its long been clear that there is is a direct and largely inverse ratio between best sellers lists and what the Buddha actually taught.
I dont see that changing. The popular taste is for the ersatz and what makes you feel good in the short term.
" With a Foreword By HH The Dalai Lama" is usually a reliable indicator that it need not detain one.

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:35 am
by BlackBird
The market isn't there for the cold hard facts that many of the Theravadin Bestsellers present. As Ben mentioned booksellers have pretty tight margins, so when they stock their 'spirituality' shelves they're going to ask themselves what's going to sell the more?

It's not going to be your Theravadin texts, which offer a fairly grim picture for all those still infatuated with life.
It's probably gonna be your Mahayana and Pseudo-Buddhist texts, which more often appeal to the romance of the human condition, in a more 'life affirming' way.
PeterB wrote: " With a Foreword By HH The Dalai Lama" is usually a reliable indicator that it need not detain one.
Except of course "What the Buddha Taught" by Bhikkhu Bodhi :)

metta
Jack

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:41 am
by tiltbillings
BlackBird wrote:
PeterB wrote: " With a Foreword By HH The Dalai Lama" is usually a reliable indicator that it need not detain one.
Except of course "What the Buddha Taught" by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Ven Walpola Rahula not Ven Bodhi. Maybe you mean: In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (Teachings of the Buddha) by Bhikkhu Bodhi and The Dalai Lama

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 9:03 am
by BlackBird
tiltbillings wrote: Maybe you mean: In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (Teachings of the Buddha) by Bhikkhu Bodhi and The Dalai Lama
Yeah that's the one Tilt :coffee: :rofl: :popcorn: :group:
tiltbillings wrote: by Bhikkhu Bodhi and The Dalai Lama
Interesting that the authorship is titled that way, considering the Dalai Lama only does a couple of pages foreword for Ven. Bodhi's work. You would almost think the way it's put that it was a 50/50 project.

Makes one wonder if the Dalai Lama's name isn't being used as a bit of a marketing tool for these publications.

metta
Jack

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 9:34 am
by tiltbillings
BlackBird wrote:
Makes one wonder if the Dalai Lama's name isn't being used as a bit of a marketing tool for these publications.
I do not think there is any question about it.

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:44 pm
by Kim OHara
BlackBird wrote:
tiltbillings wrote: Maybe you mean: In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (Teachings of the Buddha) by Bhikkhu Bodhi and The Dalai Lama
Yeah that's the one Tilt :coffee: :rofl: :popcorn: :group:
tiltbillings wrote: by Bhikkhu Bodhi and The Dalai Lama
Interesting that the authorship is titled that way, considering the Dalai Lama only does a couple of pages foreword for Ven. Bodhi's work. You would almost think the way it's put that it was a 50/50 project.

Makes one wonder if the Dalai Lama's name isn't being used as a bit of a marketing tool for these publications.

metta
Jack
The pedant strikes again :guns:
It isn't actually 'titled' that way, just listed that way by Amazon - look properly at the cover and you will see the two monks' contributions correctly recognised.
I'm sure that the (very obviously non-Buddhist :tongue: ) bookseller is using HHDL's name for marketing, but not so sure about the publisher. It shouldn't be surprising, anyway, in the light of the bookseller's priorities, as mentioned by Ben.
:namaste:
Kim

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 2:29 pm
by DNS
Clayton wrote:No, there are some books published, but a lot of Theravada teachers make their work available online (including books) for free out of compassion. This has been a great benefit to me in my practice. Check out Amazon if you want hard copies...
All good points above, but especially Clayton's above. Many Theravada monks and teachers offer their books only for the cost of publication and many not even for that, just completely free.

Even The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation, which distributes free books, has mostly Theravada authors even though it is a Mahayana company located in a Mahayana country (Taiwan).
http://www.budaedu.org/en/book/II-02main.php3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But in praise of some Mahayana teachers; there are some such as Thich Nhat Hanh, who have eared about two million dollars USD from book sales and have used it all to open more monasteries, not for any personal use at all.

Re: No Popular Theravada Bestsellers?

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:55 pm
by tiltbillings
The use of the Dalai Lama's name on the front cover is a marketing device. That there is a forward by the Dalai Lama likely carries little weight with Theravadins, but it may attract the attention of Mahayanists to a "hinayana" book and those with a general interest in Buddhism. All of which is not a bad thing.