Forbes has a piece on the “The Worlds Best Paid Authors.” Looking at the list, the first thing that came to mind is that people really are reading a lot of crap these days—including me—but at least they’re reading at all. Not surprisingly, Jo Rowling is top gun, having raked in $300 million between June 2007 and June ’08. Yes, I said $300 million in a year!!! She’s brought joy to countless people worldwide and seems like a genuinely nice gal (just don’t infringe on her copyrights or she’ll sue your arse off), but it still makes me want to puke (according to a post on Bookninja, $300M in a year equals $571 a minute). Coming in at a very distant second with a mere $50 million haul is best-seller factory James Patterson. He cranks out books like Keebler cranks out cookies, and he's no elf! Third is Stephen King with $45 million. Tom Clancy and Danielle Steel placed fourth and fifth with $35 and $30 million earned, respectively. Rounding out the top ten are Nicholas Sparks, Janet Evanovich, John Grisham, Dean Koontz, and Ken Follett.

With the masses faced with so many electronic distractions and so many people dumping reading for their crackberries (I see them on the train every day with their thumbs going over these tiny keyboards like monkeys while I’m scraping away at Melville) It’s remarkable that these ten can make fortunes off writing, so bully for them.