Bookscan has set out the bestsellers of the year. Look at Rowling go! There are a few surprises on here but not that many. For those expecting an appearance by Nora Roberts in every category, well, you folks are in for a little shock. Sure, she’s on here. But, some other folks are beating her in sales. Of course, since she out-writes all of ‘em, she’s probably still ahead in dollars.
The Top 50 (with unit threshholds)
7 million+
1. [h] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rowling, J.K.
1 million+
2. A Million Little Pieces, Frey, James
3. The Kite Runner, Hosseini, Khaled
4. [h] 1776, McCullough, David
5. [h] The Da Vinci Code, Brown, Dan,
6. [h] The World Is Flat, Friedman, Thomas L.
800,000k+
7. [h] The Purpose-Driven Life, Warren, Rick
8. Angels & Demons, Brown, Dan
9. [h] You: The Owner’s Manual, Oz, Mehmet
10. [h] Eldest, Paolini, Christopher
11. [h] The Broker, Grisham, John
12. [h] Your Best Life Now, Osteen, Joel
13. [h] Blink, Gladwell, Malcolm
600,000k+
14. [h] Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About, Trudeau,Kevin,
15. [h] Freakonomics, Levitt, Steven D.
16. The Secret Life of Bees, Kidd, Sue Monk
17. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Haddon, Mark
18. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Brashares, Ann,
19. The Broker, Grisham, John Grisham
20. [h] French Women Don’t Get Fat, Guiliano, Mireille
21. Wicked, Maguire, Gregory
500,000k+
22. [h] True Believer, Sparks, Nicholas
23. [h] The Mermaid Chair, Kidd, Sue Monk
24. Black Rose, Roberts, Nora
25. [h] The Penultimate Peril, Snicket, Lemony
26. The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis, C.S.
27. [h] Mary, Mary, Patterson, James
28. [h] The Historian, Kostova, Elizabeth
29. [h] Girls In Pants, Brashares, Ann
30. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants, Brashares,Ann,
31. My Sister’s Keeper, Picoult, Jodi
32. Red Lily, Roberts, Nora
33. The Last Juror, Grisham, John
34. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rowling, J.K.
400,000k+
35. [h] The Five People You Meet In Heaven, Albom, Mitch
36. [h] At First Sight, Sparks, Nicholas
37. [h] Eragon, Paolini, Christopher
38. Deception Point, Brown, Dan
39. [h] He’s Just Not That Into You, T, Behrendt, Greg
40. [h] Rachael Ray’s 365, Ray, Rachael
41. [h] Honeymoon, Patterson, James
42. The Tipping Point, Gladwell, Malcolm
43. [h] 4th of July, Patterson, James
44. Why Do Men Have Nipples?, Leyner, Mark
45. [h] Teacher Man, McCourt, Frank
46. [h] Team of Rivals, Goodwin, Doris, Kearns
47. [h] Our Endangered Values, Carter, Jimmy
48. Trace, Cornwell, Patricia D.
49. Bad Cat, Edgar, Jim
300,000k+
50. [h] Predator, Cornwell, Patricia
[and through No. 73, Light from Heaven, by Jan Karon
Thereafter, there are more than 70 books that sold 200,000 copies or greater.
Subscribe to Posts
Where do you suppose A Million Little Pieces would fall on this list if Oprah hadn’t made it a book club pick?
by Wendy January 6th, 2006 at 6:17 pmI cant believe Bad Cat sold that many copies, number 1. Number 2, its crazy that HP&HBP sold that many copies and there’s still such a surplus of copies available. I heard they printed like 9 or 10 million.
by Jay January 6th, 2006 at 7:43 pmWendy – My guess is that he would have sold 34 copies without Oprah. Thirty copies by Frey and various family members and four copies by people who forgot to check the author name and bought it thinking it was a new Jonathan Safran Foer book since both have hands on the cover.
Jay- I found the numbers kind of shocking but be careful about saying anything even remotely negative about HP beuuase someone we know (yes, I’m talking about Wendy) will figure out where you live and come over and beat you. She’s, shall we say, a tad rabid in her devotion to all things Potter.
by HelenKay January 6th, 2006 at 8:58 pmI can’t believe how far ahead of the game Rowling is. I see Patricia Cornwell isn’t selling as many books as she used to. I’m sure it isn’t a coincidence that her sales have declined since she decided to fix something that wasn’t broken by changing the way she writes her Kaye Scarpetta books.
BTW, how many copies of The Da Vinci Code did Dan Brown sell last year?
by Karen Scott January 7th, 2006 at 7:13 amWow! It’s definitely a small club.
by Jordan January 7th, 2006 at 8:17 pm“Number 2, its crazy that HP&HBP sold that many copies and there’s still such a surplus of copies available.”
My store got in several thousand copies last July and we finally sent our last few boxes back this month – only about ten of them (ten copies per box).
What get’s me is the number of people that buy the box sets each year – especially the hardcover one. People! there’s only one more to go and then you’ll get to but the real box set.
by Mickle January 15th, 2006 at 6:10 am