h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks much for a great entry. I had seen this designation in a bookstore but didn't have the courage to check it out for myself. (Partially because it was right next to the bodice-ripper westerns whose covers always leave me wondering how they could sell them without a plain brown wrapper.)

That said, I was surprised that the Twilight series was mentioned as I was under the impression it was geared more towards teens. Oh well, maybe that's just the way it was marketed in the U.S.

Also, thanks for addressing the seeming lack of appeal to men. I was conned into reading the first book of the Twilight series and if i had not previously been exposed to Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles I would have been completely put off of the genre. The plot seemed too thin & the characters seemed like caricatures. But that's from a guy's perspective...and I tend to prefer the "boring" classics anyway.

You are right of course. Twilight is for teens (not that I have read it myself). Technically. But I gather it was a phenomenon among the grown up women, not just the teens, and I suspect that that is when publishing companies realised they might be onto a thing here, and the rest as they say is history. Harry P did much the same for fantasy/ what would eventually be called UF in the young adult market.

It might have taken off anyway, mind. It has just occurred to me that massively popular female oriented UF is what you get when comic book writers and publishers stick resolutely to male orientated stories and characters.

Anyway. Glad to be of help! Any of the titles I've suggested grab you? What sort of classics? I'm a Heinlein fan myself. Or do you mean actual literature?