<p>“most authors are english majors…”
– I have no idea whether that’s true or false, but there’s another thread around here about “English vs. Journalism.” In that thread, a number of posters claim that a totally different background an actually make for great journalists, because as long as those people can still write well, it means that they have their own “areas of expertise.” The same would hold true among novelists. Think Dan Brown, for example (I know I’m choosing kind of a controversial example, but hey). The man knows how to stick together a sentence, but he certainly wouldn’t have pumped out the same bestsellers without his background in Religious Studies :)</p>
<p>In fact, here’s yet another set of fun facts. A sampling from the current New York Time’s best-seller list, plus the degrees of the authors…</p>
<p>Hardover Fiction
- PLAYING FOR PIZZA, by John Grisham (Accounting followed by law school)
- THE ALMOST MOON, by Alice Sebold (Hard to find…studied poetry and fiction)
- WORLD WITHOUT END, by Ken Follett (Philosophy)
- THE CHOICE, by Nicholas Sparks (Business Finance)
- A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, by Khaled Hosseini (Biology)</p>
<p>Paperback Trade Fiction
- LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA, by Gabriel Garc</p>