NY Times Best Sellers

[jbcohen]

I am geting a good picture now of the characteristics of electronic book buyers (I do not now nor have I ever worked for a book publishing house). Personally I have dropped reading any of the NY Times Bestsellers, they cost too much and the types of books I like to read generaly do not make the list. Do you read NY Times Bestsellers?

Personally I preferr looking through all of the modern authors for those unknown great authors (thus far I have found Andy Mc Dermott and Graham Brown).

[elemenoP]

I just looked at the ebook fiction list:

http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-...tion/list.html

Of the top 25, I have read 5 of them and am reading a sixth right now (Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest). I purchased three of these in print before getting my ereader, and the other three I got as ebooks from the library. That's the great thing about the bestseller list: except for publisher restrictions, my library has pretty much all of them.

And yes, I do tend to like books like Water for Elephants, Cutting for Stone, etc. There are also a lot of books on the list that hold no interest for me.

eP

[astrangerhere]

Best-sellers have not been my cup of tea for a very long time. I think the last one i read was Jurassic Park or perhaps Harry Potter. I read alot of international (and not in english) fiction, and the good old NYT doesnt really cover that.

[Nyssa]

I've never sought out the list, nor given it more than a passing glace, when its been posted on various sites (like Huffington Post).

[JDK1962]

IMHO, you have to use the bestseller lists intelligently. Blindly reading (no pun intended) everything that happens to show up there would be a huge waste of time. I have little appetite for political memoir--would you like some spin with your ghostwritten spin?--but am happy to read properly researched history. Similarly, I'll skip the latest factory fiction that sells well at Costco and debuts at #1, but if something shows up on the list that I read a good review of somewhere else, and it doesn't sound completely dreadful, I might try it.

But you'd go broke buying everything you want to read. When I read the NYT Review of Books and see something I think worth a shot, I put it on hold at my local library. Do I care that there's a 1-3 month wait? Nope...I'm in the middle of reading something I put on hold three months ago that just came in.

[jersysman]

Seeing that I do not even know what is on the list, I would have to say the answer to that question is No. I'm sure by accident I have read some of the books that have been on that list. I tend to read what I want anyway and not depend on what is on some kind of list. With my likes, they probably would not show up on that list anyway.

[DixieGal]

I need to explain. You see, I read many NYT bestsellers unintentionally. I find that I read a book, only later to find out that it was on the list.

[Worldwalker]

I read the books I enjoy -- rarely anything new, except sometimes in SF, but it happens sometimes. Sometimes other people enjoy them, too, enough for them to be on the NYT bestseller list. But I don't read books because they're listed; it's just that other people occasionally agree with me and my awesome taste.

[Pomtroll]

I don't tend to read the best sellers. Most of the time the kind of books I read never make it.

[Penforhire]

My reading regularly touches the list, especially in the thriller genre. But I do not use it or follow it as books to seek out.

[DiapDealer]

I might read some New York Times bestsellers, but I'd have to check the New York Times bestsellers list to know for sure. Can't really see that happening.

[DMB]

It is a stupid prejudice, but I am often put off buying books just because they are bestsellers. Wherever I look I see people reading them and I feel disinclined to join the herd.

Sometimes I catch up with them years later.

I bought one of those Girl Who... books because it was heavily discounted, but I still haven't managed to raise enough enthusiasm to start reading it.

I am only too well aware that this is not an admirable characteristic of mine.

[Ron.]

I am sure some I have read are best sellers, since it's not something I look for in a book I have no idea how many I have read are

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

I need to explain. You see, I read many NYT bestsellers unintentionally. I find that I read a book, only later to find out that it was on the list.

Originally Posted by Ron.

I am sure some I have read are best sellers, since it's not something I look for in a book I have no idea how many I have read are

I chose "need to explain" and these two posts sum it up. When it happens, it's purely accidental because I rarely even glance at the bestseller lists.

[mldavis2]

I'm with the general consensus here. I may have read them, but I don't seek them out as such. They tend to be 'pop' titles and often from big-name authors at big prices because of the heavy advertising associated with them.

I get my titles from library book club lists (usually a couple of years old), and from book clubs, friends and from suggestions here at MR. I also check ratings on the Goodreads.com listings which often number in the thousands of reader responses. While these may be somewhat genre-specific ratings, they are nonetheless a good barometer of what to expect from the book, and a surprising number of indie writers are finding support among knowledgeable readers at Goodreads.