Nielson Bookscan's Best Selling Books (PRINT ONLY) in the U.S. (2010-Present)

2010: (Rise of the Political Books)


2011: (Apple, a Popular Book Choice)


2012: (Mommy Was Horny; Kids Were Dying)


2013: (Very few figures released by PW in their annual report that year.)


2014: (No Fault in These Sales)


2015: (Hollywood: "Quick! Buy the Film Rights to These!")


2016: (Cursed Child Casts Accio on Readers)


2017: (Just the Top 10 for the Troubling Year)


2018: (First Ladies Can Sell Books Too)


2019: (Kids Still Like Comics)


2020: (President Tops Edward Cullen)


2021: (Birth of #BookTok)


2022: (Hoover Love and Madness!)


NOTE: Nielson Bookscan includes POS retail sales (this includes from online retailers like Amazon), but isn't the full picture. From when it began through2014, it covered ~75% of retail sales. But from 2015-present, it now covers ~85% of retail sales.

Finished my Dark Materials re-read and I think I have basically the same opinion as I did when I read them for the first time twenty years ago.

The Golden Compass - kind of a typical coming-of-age fantasy adventure, but the very best version of that type of story and still one of my favorite books ever. 10/10

The Subtle Knife - good, but very short, and nothing really happens. I don't like how Lyra becomes a supporting character. Lee Scorby's arc is great though and the end of the arc still makes me sad after all these years. 8/10

The Amber Spyglass - kind of the reverse of Knife where there's almost too much going on that it becomes hard to follow. Still, I really like that after the opening, Lyra becomes the central character again. And all the new worlds and type of people they meet are prime fantasy. 8.8/10




Overall, $20 and two months well spent. However, now I'm way behind on my usual reading goal of 12 new books per year. Need some short novels to catch up!

books read 2022

1. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
2. The Rise and Fall of Dodo, Stephenson and Galland
3. A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
4. Devolution, Max Brooks
5. Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver
6. D: A Tale of Two Worlds, Michel Faber
7. The Arrest, Jonathan Lethem
8. The Every, Dave Eggers
9. Nothing to See Here, Kevin Wilson
10. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
11. Utopia Avenue, David Mitchell
12. House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune
13. New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson
14. Migrations, Charlotte McConaghy
15. Circe, Madeline Miller
16. My Abandonment, Peter Rock
17. Dreams & Shadows, C. Robert Cargill
18. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Sáenz
19. A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine
20. The Doors of Eden, Adrian Tchaikovsky
21. Imaginary Friend, Stephen Chbosky
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
23. The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson
24. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Natasha Pulley
25. The Atlas Six, Olivie Blake
26. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
27. Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr
28. Good Morning, Midnight, Lily Brooks-Dalton
29. The Humans, Matt Haig
30. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
31. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers
32. The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey

I had a phenomenal reading year in 2022… so many incredible books. I’d probably recommend 90% of these.

First new book of the year

1. Say Nothing: A True Story of Memory and Mayhem in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe - 8.4

-Pretty solid non-fiction / true crime novel here. The book starts, ends, and often goes back to one murder of a woman named Jean McKonville (I'm probably going to mispell everyones name), but goes through the whole history of the IRA, especially the period known as The Troubles which was basically an unofficial civil war in the second half of the 1900s. I was a little turned off at first with how much the book was sympathizing with the terrorists, but it came together, showing how these people who did horrible things when they were young grew up with trauma and guilt, always looking over their backs for assassins, plus the unanswerable questions of 'was it worth it?' and 'did we accomplish anything?' I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in both history and murders.



I'll be starting Children of Dune soon, though maybe not next. Not sure yet.

I realllly hope they get it done right and do justice for the film adaptation of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. One of my favorite books and I kinda wish it would be a limited series (most books I think would benefit from this format imo) but if TJR is involved I have faith

I realllly hope they get it done right and do justice for the film adaptation of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. One of my favorite books and I kinda wish it would be a limited series (most books I think would benefit from this format imo) but if TJR is involved I have faith

2. Chronicles of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - 6

-This popped up on all the lists I found when searching for "short books." And while it did achieve the goal of giving me something I could finish in a week, I'd still say I regret reading it. It's very well written, there's no doubt about it, thus why it still gets a positive grade despite all the things I'm going to complain about. It just also ticks off so many boxes of things that frustrate me. Religious nonsense like honor killings is not really even questioned. Instead, GGM focuses more on how the entire island was guilty via inaction. I'd agree with that, but he never really digs into the real problem of why all these people acted the way they do. If there was any supernatural justice in this world then the island would have been destroyed by a volcano at the end. I know the point is that Santiago Nasir was the only person who did not deserve to die on that day, yet that doesn't make me feel any better about reliving his final hours.





Next will finally be Children of Dune.

The Courage to Be Free
Spare
Avatar the Way of Water Visual Dictionary
The Rational Bible: Deuteronomy
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

All at once lol

The Bible (God)
Seven Days that Divide the World (a look at the book of Genesis, by John Lennox)
Relentless Strike (Sean Naylor)
Critical Mass (Daniel Suarez, heir apparent to Michael Crichton)

3. Children Of Dune by Frank Herbert - 7.5

For most of these pages, I was ready to declare Children of Dune better than Messiah. The story is more interesting, the characters are unpredictable, there are big time action scenes, etc... The one issue - I found Leto II to be a bit insufferable. And thus the ending didn't really work for me. Still, it should make a really good movie if they get this far.

4. Night Film by Marisha Pessl - 2.5

Woof. This was not a good pick for someone trying to hit a yearly goal. I was just searching for murder mysterys that were not written by Agatha Christie and came upon it. While those are quick and easy reads, this one went for a long long time. 831 pages on Kindle . They do incorporate fake news articles interspersed between the chapters, which was a clever gimmick, but didn't really add all that much. And while its not the worst book I've ever read, it might have been the biggest waste of my time. The mystery was compelling enough to continue on with it (though I correctly predicted it would lead to nothing,) but the main character was such a turd that I could never read more than a handful of pages at a time. I had to renew it from the Libby app three times (loans last 21 days...) Also, though I realize the irony of writing it this way, I think I'm done with first person narratives.


So since my goal of 12/year is probably out of reach now, I'll just roll on with God Emporer of Dune as my next read.

5. God Emperor Of Dune by Frank Herbert - 7

-Another long one. This time in the Dune saga we jump thousands of years in the future. Yet still, in tradition with other books, the "hero" of the previous book is now the "villain" of this one. Don't worry too much about how said character achieved that immortality or which giant species of animal that lives under the sand they had to merge with to make it happen. Don't worry about it. The movies will never make it this far :-p. Anyway, the smartest thing in this book was using a resurrected character that died in a previous book as a plot device to show how much (and how little) things had changed in the thousands of years since we were last on Arrakis ... Again don't worry too much about how that is possible. I know this review sounds like I wasn't too fond of it, but it is a fascinating read and I burned through it pretty quickly for a 500+ pager. And I'm actually more interested to see where the series goes from here than I was at the end of the last book (though I did give that one a higher grade overall.) With the movie moving to next year, I should plenty of time to finish Heretics and Chapterhouse.


Not sure what to read next. Will need a buffer in between Dune books. Maybe another non-fiction?

Also, I got a month of Audible Plus to support a friend's project (the WWE vs Ashley podcast / true crime thingy.) I don't mind listening to pods cause it's basically feels like being part of a conversation with someone, and this Ashley thing is pretty interesting so far.

I tried to listen a normal book though, a simple one like a random Poirot mystery, and I just can't do it. The words go in and out without creating any images in my mind and hearing every character with the same voice is just offputting. Not sure how or why some people became convinced that this was the superior way to "read." No offense to anyone that does, but it's not for me at all.

6. It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis - 7

-I'm torn on this literary classic. On one hand, despite being written in 1935, it is eerily relevant to our modern world as the 2000s own Buzz Windrip has been pretty successful at convincing people he is the answer to all their problems and that making sure he is their leader is more important than things like democracy. Step by step even. If someone told me this book was written in 2022 I'd just have assumed it was entirely about Trump. Who knew Lewis would be such a futurist?

On the other hand, Doremus Jessup is a bore to follow. I guess that's why people like Windrip will always have more power than people like him. So while I'm glad I read it, I don't think I'll be putting it in my top 50 or anywhere close.

Did a B2G1 from Target for Fourth Wing, Have A Nice Day by Mick Foley (which isn't available digitally for some reason) and Dune 6 (haven't read 5 yet but figured I'd need to buy it eventually.) Alright Rebecca Yarros, let's see what you got!

Target always has the best B2G1 deals because they include so much in them. When Amazon, B&N, etc. do it, the selection is limited where there's usually just not 3 things I really want to do it.

Now I'm going to feel bad if you (or anyone else) doesn't like Fourth Wing after reporting how well its been doing this year. Haha. It took me a few chapters to get into it, and I found it got better and better throughout and finishes on a strong "I want more" note to get me hooked on the series. Ended up giving it 4/5 on first read due to what I found to be a slow-ish beginning.

Haha no pressure. I'm excited that there is a popular series and even if its not for me, its still worth a read. Says its arriving Saturday, which should be enough time to finish what I'm reading now.

Though I probably should have sampled it before reading at least. I wanted to like the Broken Earth series but could just never get past the second person point of view writing style. You are doing this, you are doing that. Why am I doing everything?

Also, yeah Amazon had Iron Wing in their b2g1 but not Fourth Wing. Neither of the other two I got were included either. Dropping the ball!

7. Wish You Were Here by Rita Mae Brown (human) and Sneaky Pie Brown (cat) - 7

-A murder mystery starring a cat? Seems like it'd be written for me. Well .. not so much, this is definitely more geared towards divorced suburban wives (the ex-husband of the main human character is named Fair Hairisteen ... cmon ) Yet I enjoyed it a lot anyway and the killer reveal was unexpected while making total sense (the best kind of killer reveal!) The cats and dogs trying to solve the mystery and, in an even more difficult task, trying to convey the clues they find to the humans was very amusing and made this one feel unique which is exactly what I was looking for. Will definitely try out more books in the Mrs. Murphy series whenever I get the itch for a good ole murder mystery.


Fourth Wing up next! Will probably be my final book of the year. 8 is kinda pathetic, but I did reread the Dark Materials series and then later got stuck on a really lame 800+ pager along the way lol.

I think I’m going to ask for Fourth Wing for Christmas too though I have a lot of books over the years I bought but never got around to starting.

Only read the first chapter but I already get it. I really liked how she just drops you into the story and builds the world from there. The first few steps of the hero's journey are boring anyway.

I'm already picturing Thomasin McKenzie as the lead too. Is it really too late to convince Amazon to shift from series to movie?

It does drop you right into the story. I think that's what took me a couple/few chapters to get into it on my first read because many books I read (or first books if in a series) don't do that very often. Here are your characters, here is the setting, here's what's going on, enjoy! I don't know how many times I referenced the map in the early chapters lol.

If you're interested in reading it Shack, try asking for the special edition if they can find it. Online stock (in the US anyway) was largely gone around the release last month, but I've seen it come and go at Amazon and Target lately. That way even if you don't actually read it, you have a collector's item that, as far as I now, won't be reprinted.

The 3 (or 4?) chapters of the Threshing were a thrill from beginning to end. Needs to be a movie!!

I have Alan Rickman's voice in my head for Tairn. But not Snape Rickman, more like the Metatron from Dogma or Marvin from Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy.

Target also sent me a 20% off books deal alongside a $10 coupon. So they basically forced me to buy Iron Flame. Hands tied, nothing I could do about it. Will probably wait a little before jumping in though. Still have like 400 pages left to go in this one and also wanted to finish the Dune series before part 2 releases in March and also don't like reading the same/similiar genre back to back anymore.

So I'm thinking after Fourth Wing:

Mick Foley's Have A Nice Day
Heretics of Dune
Mrs. Murphy #2
Chapterhouse Dune
?? Maybe another classic or history?
Iron Flame

Not sure you'll want to put off Iron Flame that long after you finish Fourth Wing.

And spoiler tags in case Shack or others want to read in the future:

It was this scene in particular that came to mind. Just an all powerful entity being extremely annoyed by a mortal they were trying to help.

For the gauntlet ... I guess I didn't really get a good view of it in my mind either. Its kinda like a 3D platforming level that Violet has to turn into a puzzle. If it ever did become a 150 minute movie, that part could be probably be combined with the threshing or even the opening paraphet challenge.

Well god damn at Chapter 30.