Mar
20
2010
This Week’s Bestsellers
Oh my. Last week saw six new books added to the list of bestsellers. I managed to read four of them and to review three. That left me with two pretty thick books on my reading list (The Pacific and No Apology) heading into the weekend. And then I saw the New York Times list of bestsellers for this week and was somewhat shocked to see another five books added to it.
Going straight to the top is Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, by Chelsea Handler. The book is a collection of essays by Handler, a comedian. I’m a mite concerned it’s going to be an ugly read. But we shall see.
Start out at #2 is Courage and Consequence by Karl Rove. The book gives President George W. Bush’s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff an opportunity to explain why he did what he did during his years serving the President.
At the #3 spot is Change Your Brain, Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen. The one-line description goes like this: :”Using the brain-body connection to lose weight and avoid depression.” Can’t say that I’m particularly looking forward to reading that one.
New at #6 is Jesse Ventura’s American Conspiracies. “The former Minnesota governor questions the official explanation of events like the Kennedy assassination and 9/11.” At the very least it ought to be interesting.
And way down at #15 is Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I do believe Foer, a novelist, is going to try to convince me not to eat any of those delicious, delicious animals that I so enjoy. I don’t like his chances, though lately, just for sake of variety, I’ve been eating vegetarian quite regularly.
And there we have it. Five new books added which brings my “to read” list up to seven titles. Interestingly, most of this week’s titles are not available in Kindle format. It seems to me that many publishers are treating the Kindle format a bit like paperbacks, allowing the hardcover to stay in print for a while before bringing out the Kindle version. I suppose there must still be more money in hardcover than in e-books.
5 Comments
Regarding the Kindle, I wonder if Apple’s upcoming iPad and their bullying around of the publishing companies has affected Amazon’s ability to get the new stuff as quickly as they used to. Also I read somewhere that Apple’s agreements with the publishing houses has pretty much eliminated the 9.99 price point Amazon had with publishers for their new books.
I think your concern about the Chelsea Handler book is well founded. A gal at work had it at her desk. She told me it was funny and let me look at it, but after the first couple of pages, I couldn’t/wouldn’t read any further. Terribly inappropriate and profane. Don’t envy you on this one.
I think there is quite a bit more money in hardcovers… Here, in France, getting an electronic copy of new books at 10$ would be a steal. Their hardcover counterparts go for more than 25$!
Out of curiosity, what will you do if you come upon a book you really don’t want to finish due to innapropriate content? For the sake of argument let’s say Chelsea Handler’s book – which, for the record, I’ve never heard of – is horribly offensive and unbiblical. Will you skim in order to review lightly? Skip it? Will you read in order to say you read them all? Will you read with a Bible in one hand and that book in the other?! What’s the plan?
Kara – I honestly don’t know. I had thought about it a little bit before the project began, but hadn’t come to a conclusion. I think I’ll start reading it and just keep tabs on my conscience and heart. If I find myself unable to go on because of conscience or if I find that it is doing bad things to my heart, I’ll put it down. It’s not worth violating conscience or committing a sin just to say I read all of the books on the list.