Are We Sick of Celebrity Excess?

At a time of international financial crisis and lots of attendant personal strife for many readers have we, as a culture, finally lost our taste for empty tales of pointless riches and celebrity excess? With sales in the usually dependable category of celebrity biographies down almost by half, that would seem to be the case. From The Telegraph:

According to industry figures quoted in The Bookseller, sales of biographies and memoirs fell by 43 per cent in October compared to the same month last year.

Publishers released the usual glut of celebrity books at the end of September in time for the lucrative Christmas market. Although books were released by bankable stars like Paul Scholes, the footballer, and MIchael Buble, the singer, industry experts said that no books were released by “national treasures” such as Keith Richards, whose autobiography was a best-seller last year.