Bad Day for Lowbrow Literature

Robert B. Parker, author of the Spencer detective novels, and Erich Segal, author of Love Story have both died.

I don't mean to imply that they were bad authors, I rather enjoyed reading the Spencer books, and I have never read Segal, and so cannot comment on his work at all, but rather I am saying that their books were decidedly mass market, as opposed to the more erudite stuff that you see reviewed in gushing tones on NPR.