Two editorials today on the theme of the dumbing down of literature:

First, Gail Armstrong of Open Brackets records her conflicted reactions to a Wall Street Journal article (WSJ link susceptible to linkrot) about Barnes & Nobles’ line of simplified classics for younger readers and literacy programs.

Next up, in the Guardian, novelist DJ Taylor frets about the effect that expanded book sales in UK supermarket chains is having on the publishing industry:

Cheap books are apparently the spiritual equivalent of universal suffrage, and by offering works by Dan Brown, Patricia Cornwell and Tony Parsons for a pound or two below the prices levied by traditional outlets, Tesco and its friends are “democratising” the book trade. This is not to lament the vast sales racked up Dan and Tony, merely to suggest that there are other books lingering in the publishers’ catalogues whose chances of straying into the public’s line of vision are proportionately reduced every time another supermarket deal gets struck.

The Guardian article was posted to the Bookfinder Insiders list. The poster there mentioned that Tesco — the supermarket chain mentioned in the editorial — is rumored to be buying the UK bookstore chain Waterstone’s.