Bookplanet: Israelis are people of the book

Israeli literary authors sell way more in Israel than American literary authors sell in America. David Grossman and Meir Shalev sell more than 100,000 copies in Israel. Roth and Bellow and Foer and Nicole Krauss -- do they get these numbers in the U.S.? The Israeli population is 6.9m, of which 5.3m are Jews. America has 296m people. For comparable figures, a literary writer in the U.S. would have to sell 5.6m copies of a novel, way beyond Grisham territory (worldwide sales of megaseller Da Vinci Code is now 18m).
These Israeli authors also sell 20,000-30,000 copies of their works in Europe. In the U.S., however, they rarely pass the 5,000 mark.
Literary books by European authors are sold in incredibly low numbers in the U.S; almost the equivalent of a print-run in Israel. Jose Saramago, one of the most important Portuguese writers, may sell more than 70,000-80,000 copies in Israel. In America, the number is closer to 5,000.
Let's face it, we are not a brainy culture. We are a pop culture. Or should we say junk culture?