Top 10 books

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by RWood

Just for fun I checked the current Top 10 sellers at the US Amazon site. (I have excluded the pre-orders for HP #7 and the audio books.) Here is the list:

1. "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne (editor)
2. "In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing" by Lee Woodruff and Bob Woodruff
3. "Woman & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny" by Suze Orman
4. "A Long Way Gone: Memories of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
5. "You On A Diet:The Owner's Manual for Waist Management" by Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen
6. "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't" by Robert Sutton
7. "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
8. "Law of Attraction: The Science of Attracting More of What You Want and Less of What You Don't Want" by Michael Losier
9. "The Watchman: A Joe Pike Novel: by Robert Crais
10. "Baseball Prospectus 2007: The Essential Guide to the 2007 Baseball Season" by Christina Kahrl (editor) and Steven Goldman (editor)

Of the books on the list I have read none. Yet somehow this makes me feel good about myself.

I can quite honestly say that, not only have I never read any of those, I've never even heard of any of them . Wonder how many of those will be making a "top 10" list in 100 years time?

[NatCh]

I'm pretty sure I've never heard of any of them.

[yvanleterrible]

Ditto here!

And we let publishers decide what is culture and what's not? Sheeech!!!

[taralon]

Memoirs of a Boy soldier is being pimped at starbucks right now, only know of it because of that. Infidel is a fairly good read, being a look into the world of Islaam for a female PoV who has largely refudiated its teachings...

[The GreatGonzo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I can quite honestly say that, not only have I never read any of those, I've never even heard of any of them .

I work in a bookstore and sadly, I have heard of them, all of them. You're quite right, they're prime examples of the crap that's wildly popular for six months and then ends up in landfills. Our store buys and sells used books as well and let me tell you, we could probably build a second store with all the copies of the wretched DA VINCI CODE that have come back to us by now. IMHO this perfectly illustrates why e-books need to take off now - just look at the amount of book trash generated by these titles that have no staying power, but sell in the millions for a short time. So much easier to just hit Delete...

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by The GreatGonzo

I work in a bookstore and sadly, I have heard of them, all of them. You're quite right, they're prime examples of the crap that's wildly popular for six months and then ends up in landfills. Our store buys and sells used books as well and let me tell you, we could probably build a second store with all the copies of the wretched DA VINCI CODE that have come back to us by now. IMHO this perfectly illustrates why e-books need to take off now - just look at the amount of book trash generated by these titles that have no staying power, but sell in the millions for a short time. So much easier to just hit Delete...

Thanks for this first eye view on a touchy subject for us!

[JSWolf]

WOW! That list is one heck of a lousy list of books. Mostly guides to this that and the other that people with good intnetions plan on reading and never really do. Bah!

To be honest, if every one of those books where formatted nicely for my Reader and given to me for free, I would still not read any of them.

[astra]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

WOW! That list is one heck of a lousy list of books. Mostly guides to this that and the other that people with good intnetions plan on reading and never really do. Bah!

To be honest, if every one of those books where formatted nicely for my Reader and given to me for free, I would still not read any of them.

Neither would I.

[yvanleterrible]

Weel! Maybe I'd read the one with Bob Woodruff. If he's the ABC journalist I'm thinking of. He suffered through a big ordeal when he was injured in Irak and he's a good writer overall.

[JSWolf]

I just took a look at Amazon's current top ten list and you can never go by that for what's good (IMHO).

01. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Oprah's Book Club) by Carson McCullers
02. The Road (Oprah's Book Club) by Cormac McCarthy
03. Lessons from a Sheep Dog by Phillip Keller
04. Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club) by Jeffrey Eugenides
05. Everyday Sacred: A Woman's Journey Home by Sue Bender
06. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
07. The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
08. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
09. The Shop On Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
10. How to Write a Best-Seller While Keeping Your Day Job! A Step-By-Step Manual of Success for Writers Who Want to Be Published But Don't Have the Time by Daniel H. Jones

[NatCh]

Carson McCullers? Urgh. Just goes to show there's no accounting for taste. I can't believe it's #1.

[JSWolf]

I think some people just buy if it's recommended by Oprah.

[NatCh]

You're probably right.

[cherdman]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I think some people just buy if it's recommended by Oprah.

The Road looks pretty good. Plus it's available in ebook! I might have to give that one a try.

[mogui]

Originally Posted by flumbo

If you like fun adventure books like this, give Clive Cussler a try. His dialog is sometimes fairly stilted, but his ideas are fun-- usually there's a historical event that ties in with a James Bond type world-threatening dilemma. I like the older books from the 70's and 80's the best.

Cussler has ingenious plots combined with clumsy writing. As you say, his ideas are great. I read all of them as they come out. In one of his books, James Bond actually appears. You will have to read them yourself to find the reference though, because I forgot.

And speaking of James Bond, I read all of the Ian Fleming creations and most of the follow-on authors too. The Ian Fleming books were the only ones that kept me up all night. The newest filming of Casino Royale is IMHO, the best JB movie ever. It is true to the character of JB being a cold-hearted evil man in the service of good. The action was outstanding without being a parody of action movies as some of the Roger Moore films were.