100 best selling books from 1998 to 2010

The Guardian has published a list of the best selling books from 1998 to 2010. So, I thought I'd see how many of the 100 I've read ... It's based on ISBNs which is apparently why there are two versions of some of the books.

1. Da Vinci Code,The Brown, Dan
2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone# Rowling, J. K.
3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets# Rowling, J. K.
4. Angels and Demons# Brown, Dan
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Rowling, J. K.
6. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince:Children's Edition Rowling, J. K.
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Rowling, J. K.
8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban# Rowling, J. K.
9. Twilight# Meyer, Stephenie
10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Rowling, J. K.
11. Deception Point# Brown, Dan
12. New Moon# Meyer, Stephenie
13. Lovely Bones,The# Sebold, Alice
14. Digital Fortress# Brown, Dan
15. Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time,The# Haddon, Mark
16. Eclipse# Meyer, Stephenie1
17. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,The:Millennium Trilogy# Larsson, Stieg
18. Kite Runner,The# Hosseini, Khaled
19. Time Traveler's Wife,The Niffenegger, Audrey
20. World According to Clarkson,The Clarkson, Jeremy
21. Atonement# McEwan, Ian
22. Lost Symbol,The Brown, Dan
23. Short History of Nearly Everything,A Bryson, Bill
24. Breaking Dawn Meyer, Stephenie
25. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Rowling, J. K.
26. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Rowling, J. K.
27. Girl Who Played With Fire,The:Millennium Trilogy# Larsson, Stieg
28. Child Called It,A Pelzer, Dave
29. No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency,The:No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency S. McCall Smith, Alexander
30. You are What You Eat:The Plan That Will Change Your Life McKeith, Gillian
31. Man and Boy Parsons, Tony
32. Birdsong Faulks, Sebastian
33. Labyrinth Mosse, Kate
34. Island,The Hislop, Victoria
35. Life of Pi Martel, Yann
36. Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution:The No-hunger, Luxurious Weight Loss P Atkins, Robert C.
37. Tales of Beedle the Bard,The Rowling, J. K.
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin De Bernieres, Louis
39. Delia's How to Cook:(Bk.1) Smith, Delia
40. Gruffalo,The# Donaldson, Julia
41. Eats, Shoots and Leaves:The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation Truss, Lynne
42. Northern Lights:His Dark Materials S. Pullman, Philip
43. Interpretation of Murder,The Rubenfeld, Jed
44. Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest,The:Millennium Trilogy Larsson, Stieg
45. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason Fielding, Helen
46. Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian,A Lewycka, Marina
47. Alchemist,The:A Fable About Following Your Dream Coelho, Paulo
48. Notes from a Small Island Bryson, Bill
49. Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,The# Boyne, John
50. Stupid White Men:...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Natio Moore, Michael
51. Jamie's 30-minute Meals Oliver, Jamie
52. Broker,The Grisham, John
53. Bridget Jones's Diary:A Novel Fielding, Helen
54. Very Hungry Caterpillar,The:The Very Hungry Caterpillar Carle, Eric
55. Thousand Splendid Suns,A Hosseini, Khaled
56. Sound of Laughter,The Kay, Peter
57. Jamie's Italy Oliver, Jamie
58. Small Island# Levy, Andrea
59. Memory Keeper's Daughter,The Edwards, Kim
60. Billy Connolly Stephenson, Pamela
61. House at Riverton,The Morton, Kate
62. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix# Rowling, J. K.
63. Nigella Express Lawson, Nigella
64. Memoirs of a Geisha Golden, Arthur
65. Delia's How to Cook:(Bk.2) Smith, Delia
66. Subtle Knife,The:His Dark Materials S. Pullman, Philip
67. Jamie's Ministry of Food:Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours Oliver, Jamie
68. Guinness World Records 2009:2009
69. Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?:And 114 Other Questions
70. Jamie at Home:Cook Your Way to the Good Life Oliver, Jamie
71. White Teeth Smith, Zadie
72. Devil Wears Prada,The Weisberger, Lauren
73. At My Mother's Knee ...:and Other Low Joints O'Grady, Paul
74. No Time for Goodbye Barclay, Linwood
75. "Times" Su Doku,The:The Utterly Addictive Number-placing Puzzle:(Bk. 1
76. Chocolat Harris, Joanne
77. Return of the Naked Chef,The Oliver, Jamie
78. Angela's Ashes:A Memoir of a Childhood McCourt, Frank
79. Schott's Original Miscellany Schott, Ben
80. Dreams from My Father:A Story of Race and Inheritance Obama, Barack
81. Dangerous Book for Boys,The Iggulden, Conn & Iggulden, Hal
82. To Kill a Mockingbird# Lee, Harper
83. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince Rowling, J. K.
84. Summons,The Grisham, John
85. Lost Symbol,The Brown, Dan
86. Catcher in the Rye,The Salinger, J.D.
87. I Can Make You Thin McKenna, Paul
88. Happy Days with the Naked Chef Oliver, Jamie
89. Brick Lane Ali, Monica
90. Anybody Out There? Keyes, Marian
91. Undomestic Goddess,The Kinsella, Sophie
92. Book Thief,The# Zusak, Markus
93. I Know You Got Soul Clarkson, Jeremy
94. Sharon Osbourne Extreme:My Autobiography Osbourne, Sharon
95. Guinness World Records 2010
96. Amber Spyglass,The:His Dark Materials S. Pullman, Philip
97. Can You Keep a Secret? Kinsella, Sophie
98. Down Under Bryson, Bill
99. Spot of Bother,A Haddon, Mark
100. Dear Fatty French, Dawn

So I make that 46 books. Maybe if I was more into cook books I could have highlighted more ... but I've certainly done my bit to help some of the big sellers to do well. Glad to see To Kill A Mockingbird on there, not many classics that are still selling well, obviously. There are also some "so what?" type books on there, I think as a result of Richard and Judy's Book Club. Right. Think I'll review the books I've read this year.

Magic: New Stories edited by JK Rowling

Magic little book of short stories, published to raise money for one parent family society. Wide variety of stories, just what I needed at that point in the term!
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling

This was actually my final read of 2008. A Christmas present from H, I read it over about three nights between Christmas and New Year.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard are five wizarding fairy tales; one features heavily in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. They are fairly simple, and the conceit is that Hermione Granger translated the copy that she received from Albus Dumbledore, along with his notes on the text. An interesting little book, although I would say only within the confines of the Harry Potter septology.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

It has been done! In about ten hours, I have finished the 600+ page book. I know the fates of Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest. I managed (mainly) without seeing spoilers (I vaguely saw one, a really bad one as it turned out, but fortunately I closed it down quickly so managed to not see all the words clearly and got some of the ideas muddled up, which was good).

The writing itself is not important - in places it is a pedestrian and overwrought, a but cliched, but overall it is gripping, because of the importance of this story. What will happen? Why did the things that have happened in the past happen that way? Towards the end there are some (almost deus ex machina like) revelations, which I enjoyed because I wanted to know them, but perhaps too simply shared! But we are talking about wizards, so these types of revelations are not that unusual - I mean the manner in which they are revealed, not necessarily the revelations themselves!

To be honest, there is not a lot of character development here - we do get to know more about many of the characters, and they do get to know more about themselves, but in the main the characters are by now developed.

(Sorry, this is quite hard to review without giving away any details!)

The best bit was obviously when Snape marries McGonagall. Nice touch, Dumbledore giving them away.

(Would I do that to you? Really?!)