Rare Book Monthly
Articles - October - 2007 Issue
What's Atop BookFinder's Top Ten This Year?
BookFinder's Top Ten is a different sort of list.
The removal of Belichick's book from the Popular Science and Technology category opened up room for John. F. Straubel's One Way Up to debut at the top. Number 2, up from 6 a year ago, is Murmurs of the Earth by the ever-popular Carl Sagan.
Last year's number 1 in Fiction and Literature, Sisters, by Lynne Cheney, has completely disappeared from this year's list. If only we could make her husband disappear so quickly. On top now is Once a Runner, by John L. Parker, Jr., while Nora Roberts inches one spot closer to the top, from 3 to 2, for Promise Me Tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow she will reach the promised number 1.
What important event is worthy of leading the list of books on history? Last year it was the Civil War. This year, it is Flash in the Pan: Life and Death of an American Restaurant. It is the story of a Manhattan restaurant that closed a year after it opened. What is historically important to readers this year is a bit less momentous than what was a year ago. Runner-up is The Politicos, 1865-1896, by Matthew Josephson. Amazon ranks this one a more modest 1,418,795. This book describes the period that brought us Presidents Andrew Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. Giants all.
For Mysteries and Thrillers, number 1 is The Book of Bond, by Kingley Amis as William "Bill" Tanner. Also in the top ten are Donald E. Westlake as Richard Stark and John Dickson Carr as Carter Dickson. Is there something about this genre that makes people embarrassed to use their real names? Atop Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror once again is Rage, by Stephen King, this one also written pseudonymously, and attributed to "Richard Bachman."
Finally, there is the top ten of Society and Culture, a subject I know nothing about. At the top is a title that reeks of society and culture, Our Harvard, edited by Jeffrey Lant. Perhaps the old ‘60s Hahvahd grads have gathered around the fireplace to sing from number 9, the Fireside Book of Folk Songs. We are all veterans of the Folksong Army.
You may read all of BookFinder's Top Ten Lists at http://report.bookfinder.com/2007/.
