The Best Year-End Book Lists You Never Knew Existed
Editorial by Andy Selsberg - Publishing Perpectives

At the end of each year, our innate human itch for lists gets pretty well-scratched: best, worst, and most-seen movies, top songs, choicest quotes, most salacious scandals, hottest web memes - you name it. When it comes to books, I admit I'm often more excited about reading bestseller lists than I am about reading the bestsellers. I think this is pretty standard. It's thrilling, like going to the track every weekend and watching the horses you bet on consistently lose. Still, both the year-end and weekly book lists leave me wanting more.
The New York Times list, USA Today, IndieBound, and Amazon rankings all contain only a slice of the truth, and none have hard numbers. Book reporting should take a note from college football polls, where, with different polls, the coaches get a vote, the sportswriters get a vote, and even the robots get a say with computerized rankings.
(read on ...)

Bestsellers and Others, What Other Book Lists Do You Want? By Edward Nawotka

In our lead editorial today, Andy Selsberg suggests a number of new book-related lists he'd like to see, ranging from "biggest advances and smallest books sold" to "the most-purchased but least-read books " to "the ten most read and loved literary sentences."

If you've not read the editorial, please take a moment to do so (you won't be disappointed, it's wonderful) and let us know what other lists you'd like to see.
(read on ...)