Rare Book Monthly
Articles - February - 2007 Issue
Abe's Top 10: What Does It Tell Us About Abe?
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The bestselling used book list is very similar. The Da Vinci Code is number 1 here too, followed by In Cold Blood, Tuesdays with Morrie, The South Beach Diet, and Freakonomics. Surprisingly, there's only one Harry Potter in the top 50, and that's at 17, and no Tolkien. What is popular must be changing. No Shakespeare here either.
The most searched for books was an interesting list, since Abe's relative, BookFinder, also put out such a list (see January's issue in the AE Monthly archives). BookFinder searches multiple listing sites, while Abe, naturally, searches just its own. Those who went to BookFinder were searching for some quite obscure and very hard to find old books which, for whatever reason, have seen a resurgence in interest. Most did not have a single copy available on Abe at the moment. The Abe group consisted of much better known titles, including a few literary notables. Number 1, Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown, not only does have a copy available on Abe, it has 1,174 copies available. You can pay anything from $1 to $3,550. Next comes the omnipresent Da Vince Code (2,373 copies available), followed by To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Harry Potter and the Something-or-other, and Catcher in the Rye. The only title common to Abe and BookFinder's top 10 was Madonna's never-reprinted 1992 Sex, perennially number 1 on BookFinder, number 7 on Abe.
Finally, there is a top 10 authors list, and this is certainly a mixed bag. The top spots go to Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Terhune (of dog books fame), Charles Dickens, and Dan Brown. Also in the top ten is the prolific Nora Roberts, with over 40,000 books currently offered on Abe. How often does she show up on the same list as Dickens? Not too often, I hope.
You may view all of Abebooks' top ten lists at the following link: Abebooks' top 10.
Editor's Note: Richard Davies, Abebooks Public Relations and Publicity Manager, comments on this article in the Letters to the Editor. His letter, dated Feb. 1, 2007, may be found at the following link - Click here for Letter.
