Best Seller Round-Up

"To choose a good book, look in an inquisitor’s prohibited list." ~John Aikin

If following John Aikin's advice for finding a good book, quoted above, sounds better than consulting the best seller list below, then check out the American Library Associations lists of banned and/or challenged books. The ALA collects this information as part of its promotion of the freedom to read. The lists include:

1) Banned and/or challenged novels from the Radcliffe Publishing Course top 100 novels of the 20th century. I'm proud to say that I've read most of these; hurray for liberal arts education.

2) The top 100 banned and/or challenged books of 2000 - 2007. Amazingly, the Harry Potter series is number one on this list. Go figure! Others books on this list I've read but haven't thought about in, well, in decades such as Go Ask Alice by Anonymous. In looking over the list, it seems like the world has changed so little, while at the same time it has changed so much.

As Aikin suggested, choose a good book while also flexing your First Amendment muscles by purchasing, or checking out from the library, a few banned books.

I. The New York Times.
Published April 10, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Shack, William P. Young.
Fiction Hardcover: Long Lost, Harlan Coben.



Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.

II. Los Angeles Times
Published April 12, 2009.

Fiction Paperback: The Shack, William P. Young.
Fiction Hardcover: True Detectives by Jonathan Kellerman.
Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Nonfiction Hardcover: Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve Harvey.

III. Northern California Independent Booksellers.
For the week ending April 5, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Elegance of the Hedgehog Muriel Barbery.
Fiction Hardcover: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows .
Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Outliers, The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell.

IV. Heartland Indie Bestseller List.
Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association
For the week ending March 29, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Shack, William P. Young.
Fiction Hardcover: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows .
Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.
Nonfiction Paperback (Trade): Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin.