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Best Selling books of 2013


Michelle

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The Bookseller has compiled a list of the best selling books of last year, including ebook sales. What do you think of the list?

 

http://www.futurebook.net/content/biggest-books-2013-across-print-and-digital

 

Pos Title Author Publisher P Vol E Vol
Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Orion  627,097  411,163
Inferno Dan Brown Transworld 640,676  328,960        
My Autobiography Alex Ferguson Hodder & Stoughton 803,084  44,292            
The Hundred-Year-Old Man... Jonas Jonasson Hesperus 223,966 462,608        
The Fast Diet Mosley & Spencer Short Books 497,200 174,129         
Life of Pi Yann Martel Canongate 164,675 452,536                
The Casual Vacancy J K Rowling Little, Brown 321,940  193,636            
Entwined with You Sylvia Day Penguin 255,713 252,464            
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Rachel Joyce Transworld 324,545 180,804                
10 Guinness World Records 2014 Guinness World Records 437,207 59,787    

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I've read four of them.

 

Life of Pi and the Unlikely Pilgrimage I did not enjoy (I think I rated both as 2/5). I enjoyed Gone Girl, but I would venture a guess that it was partly such a hot seller because it was very cheap on the kindle.

 

Sir Alex was inevitably going to be a high seller regardless of content, based on reputation. (I enjoyed it though, with a few caveats).

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I am guilty of buying a copy of these 4:
 
Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Orion  627,097  411,163
Inferno Dan Brown Transworld 640,676  328,960                
The Hundred-Year-Old Man... Jonas Jonasson Hesperus 223,966 462,608               
Life of Pi Yann Martel Canongate 164,675 452,536       
 
The hundred-year-old man was made into a film starring the most popular comedian in Sweden and it premiaired on Christmas day 2013. It broke the Swedish record of number of moviegoers.

 

 

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Gone Girl 
Inferno   
The Hundred-Year-Old Man 

The Fast Diet     

Life of Pi               
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

 

 

I have these from the list, but have only read 'Inferno', a typical Dan Brown enjoyable romp.

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I've read and enjoyed Gone Girl and started and abandoned The 100 Year Old Man

 

None of the others appealed to me, aside from The Casual Vacancy.....which is at this moment in one of the stacks on the stairs, patiently waiting it's turn. :)

 

It's hard to believe that no detective stories, or spy stories are on the list. 

sorry, I can't count Dan Brown.........

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Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Orion  627,097  411,16

Inferno Dan Brown Transworld 640,676  328,960             
Life of Pi Yann Martel Canongate 164,675 452,536                
The Casual Vacancy J K Rowling Little, Brown 321,940  193,636            

 

I read Life of Pi and the Casual Vacancy last year and brought Gone Girl and Inferno but havent read them yet :P
 

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The Bookseller has compiled a list of the best selling books of last year, including ebook sales. What do you think of the list?

 

4 The Hundred-Year-Old Man... Jonas Jonasson Hesperus 223,966 462,608

This is the only one I've read - I didn't enjoy it though.

 

Life of Pi and the Unlikely Pilgrimage I did not enjoy (I think I rated both as 2/5). I enjoyed Gone Girl, but I would venture a guess that it was partly such a hot seller because it was very cheap on the kindle.

I have both of those.  I think yours is the first negative comment I've heard about The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and I think we often agree on books.  :)  I'm putting it off because I *think* one of my Book Club members is going to nominate it when it's her turn to choose.

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I've read three of these:

 

Hundred year old man ... was my favourite book that I read last year.  I'd like to see the film adaptation!

 

The Life of Pi I read several years ago, it took a few attempts but I enjoyed it in the end.

 

The Unlikely Pilgrimage was a bit of a let-down for me though.

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This is the only one I've read - I didn't enjoy it though.

 

 

I have both of those.  I think yours is the first negative comment I've heard about The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and I think we often agree on books.  :)  I'm putting it off because I *think* one of my Book Club members is going to nominate it when it's her turn to choose.

Oh no! Sorry J! We do often agree, but maybe this is one of those times we won't - like your Mum and Austen? :D I am hoping Hundred Year Old Man is one of those two, because that's on my TBR!

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In very broad terms, the presence of a book high on a modern best-seller list is, for me, a pretty reliable indicator to steer clear. That's not to condemn the books - it's just that the more popular reads of today are not normally the sort of books I enjoy the most.

In fact, I've actually read two of those on the list. Gone Girl was my Duffer of the Year, fairly comfortably the book I "enjoyed" least in 2013. I really can't see why it has had such rave reviews, rather the opposite. So that somewhat confirmed my prejudices!  On the other hand, I read Life of Pi when it first came out and found it overall a good read with some thought provoking twists.

Of the others, Dan Brown is on my short-list of popular writers I dislike most, whilst Alex Ferguson is on my short-list of sports personalities I dislike most, although one has to respect (if somewhat reluctantly!) what he achieved. Diet books are almost all pernicious nonsense, whilst The Guinness Book of Records, once a source of fascination and interesting trivia, has somewhat succumbed to silliness - although it is very popular amongst the boys in my year 5 (age 9-10) class at school.  But then, maybe I was not too dissimilar in age when I last read it??

I've browsed one or two of the others following on reviews here and elsewhere, but none have particularly appealed. 

Edited by willoyd
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