Literature Old Europe Is Worth Reading

How many people read serious new novels--by which I mean not "The King of Torts" but the sort of book known in the trade as literary fiction? The answer, I suspect, is not very many, not very often. In fact, it's common to run across well-read people who no longer read any new literary fiction at all. I don't, and neither do many of the professional writers I know. Like most people, we go to the movies instead.
· European Embers [WallsStreetJournal]