At the end of every year we are inundated with so many Best Of lists. It got me thinking about if those lists even matter any more or if there are so many other ways to find books now that they are irrelevant.
I paused here while writing to look up the New York Times best seller list to see what was even on it. I figured that I wouldn’t be aware of any of the books on it. It turned out that I’m currently listening to the number 1 book on it.
That makes me so happy for Jim Butcher but I didn’t pick up this book because of a list. He’s just an auto-buy author for me.
I didn’t know the other books. They aren’t books that I’ve seen talked about. Maybe I just follow other people who are just as out of touch as I am.
If I don’t look at bestseller lists, do the end of the year Best Of lists affect my book reading?
I think they bring awareness to books that I may have missed more than anything. I tend to read them to see how many of the books I know. I tend not to know many. Sometimes I get some good book ideas.
Found out about History Matters and The Experiment from NPR’s end of the year lists. I didn’t know there was new McCullough collect out so I jumped on that. I also needed a book off that list for a book bingo challenge I’m doing so I listened to The Experiment. I wouldn’t have found that book otherwise.
But these lists aren’t my major source of recommendations.
Where I find books:
- book blogs or pages I follow
- browsing my library’s Libby app
- the “Readers Also Liked” sections of Amazon and Goodreads book pages
- Amazon gets me by making suggestions based on my previous reading
- author newsletters
- somehow I got on a list for an email of new releases in sci-fi and fantasy each month. I don’t even know where that comes from but it is dangerous.
That’s enough. I think that those suggestions are getting tailored closely enough to my interests that I don’t have to go looking for broader lists that may not fit me.
Do you read the best seller lists?
