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.

Agatha Christie Works

I'm curious to see how many of Agatha Christie's works I have read, and which ones are still outstanding. I've read so many over time that I'm sure I'll not be able to remember them all! But I'll try and make bold those I feel sure I've read. (With thanks to Delicious Death for the lists and links!)

Hercule Poirot:

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Murder on the Links

Poirot Investigates

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Big Four

The Mystery of the Blue Train

Peril at End House

Lord Edgware Dies

Murder on the Orient Express

Three Act Tragedy

Death in the Clouds

The ABC Murders

Murder in Mesopotamia

Cards on the Table

Dumb Witness

Death on the Nile

Murder in the Mews

Appointment with Death

Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Sad Cypress

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Evil under the Sun

Five Little Pigs

The Hollow

The Labours of Hercules

Taken at the Flood

Mrs.McGinty's Dead

After the Funeral

Hickory Dickory Dock

Dead Man's Folly

Cat among the Pigeons

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

The Clocks

Third Girl

Hallowe'en Party

Elephants Can Remember

Poirot's Early Cases

Curtain

Problem at Pollensa Bay

Miss Marple:

The Murder at the Vicarage

The Thirteen Problems

The Body in the Library

The Moving Finger

A Murder Is Announced

They Do It with Mirrors

A Pocket Full of Rye

4:50 from Paddington

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

A Caribbean Mystery

At Bertram's Hotel

Nemesis

Sleeping Murder

Miss Marple's Final Cases

Other Mysteries:

"Tommy & Tuppence"

The Secret Adversary

Partners in Crime

N or M ?

By the Pricking of My Thumbs

Postern of Fate

The Man in the Brown Suit

The Secret of Chimneys

The Seven Dials Mystery

The Mysterious Mr.Quin

The Sittaford Mystery

The Hound of Death

The Listerdale Mystery

Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

Parker Pyne Investigates

Murder Is Easy

And Then There Were None

Towards Zero

Death Comes as the End

Sparkling Cyanide

Crooked House

They Came to Baghdad

Destination Unknown

Ordeal by Innocence

The Pale Horse

Endless Night

Passenger to Frankfurt

While the Light Lasts

Plays:

Black Coffee

*Ten Little Indians

*Appointment with Death

*Murder on the Nile

*The Hollow

The Mousetrap

Witness for the Prosecution

Spider's Web

*Towards Zero

Verdict

The Unexpected Guest

Rule of Three

*Go Back for Murder

Akhnaton

I'm sure I have read many of the others, but I have highlighted those that I am sure I have read. Although even then I don't think I can remember all the plots!! Or who did it ...

Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie

A fun read, one I hadn't read before. Scientists are going missing, the wife of one is injured in a plane crash, another woman suddenly is plunged into intrigue. I should make a list of all the Agatha Christie books I have and haven't read some time - they are always a sure fire hit in passing time enjoyably.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

It's been a long time since a book made me cry. A bit embarrassing on the Overground. Great book.
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Brown Eyes ed. by Nicole Moore

Thoughtful anthology of poems, interviews and essays by black and mixed race women. Some of the poems I did feel had been included as they had been written by black or mixed race women, rather than because they were particularly "good", but the essays were very insightful, full of reflection on issues such as whether one should be described as mixed race or black, and what sort of a role race plays in forming one's identity. I was a bit concerned that some of the women only just seemed to have discovered Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou, but was pleased that a couple also mentioned other writers such as Jane Austen. Good to read a variety of authors, I think. Glad to have read this anthology.
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When She Was White by Judith Stone

This is a curious biography of Sandra Laing. Sandra's parents were white, so obviously when she was born, in apartheid South Africa, she was classified as white. However, her dark skin and frizzy hair resulted in "scandal-tongues" gossipping about her mother, and made her life very difficult. She was expelled from her whites-only school, was reclassified as coloured, eventually reclassified again as white after a long and bitter campaign waged by her father, then ran away from home to live with her black boyfriend in Swaziland.

The story seems to come out in fits and starts as Stone tries to piece together what happened to Sandra, as Sandra herself seems to have blanked many of the events of her childhood and struggles to understand the things that happened to her as she was growing up.

Stone peppers the narration with psychological sidenotes relating to the effects of living in apartheid South Africa, identity confusion and family breakdown. She also picks up the story from a variety of friends and from documents in Sandra's government file. It makes for a slightly awkward read at times, but is very interesting and informative.


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Father Brown Stories by GK Chesterton

What a revelation! I loved reading these. Was particularly struck by the character of Flambeau. In the first couple of stories he was a great villain, and, I surmised, a Moriarty-type figure, whose scheming ways would be pitted against the intellect of the short, dull priest. But no! Soon he was a close friend of Fr Brown's! This seemed to epitomise the difference between Poirot and Brown. Father Brown works out who did it, hears their confession, counsels them - then appears to let them go! His eyes are always on the bigger picture. Great stories, thought provoking morals. Highly recommended.

Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy

Shortlisted for the Carnegie Award, and quite right too. Particularly interesting to read after the recent renewed interest in the Jamie Bulger killers. What is it like to take on a new identity? Pretty much a one day read.
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The Last Gospel by David Gibbons

Really quite silly - particularly the conclusion, although I always feared it would be! - but fun as well, just what I wanted. A page turner, from Claudius to Pompeii, to Jesus, lots of my favourite subjects in there. Of course, the Church is the big baddie, and all a bit daft, but nevermind!
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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!
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The Hours by Michael Cunningham

I enjoyed reading this book; I was very conscious of it being well written, good prose. But at the same time I was wondering, how did this win the Pulitzer Prize? And then, in the very last line, I finally saw the final connection. Read the last chapter again and was surprised I'd missed it! And that seemed to make it all worthwhile. Interesting.
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City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende

This is one of Allende's books for young people, and as such it reads very differently from her other novels such as House of the Spirits. I have to say that I prefer her writing for adults, but this is quite a magical story. Alex and Nadia meet in the rainforest, and go on a spiritual journey in order to grow as people and, more importantly, to save the People of the Mist. Sometimes it is unclear whether the events they are experiencing are hallucinations or real.

I suppose this novel falls under the genre of magic realism; however, I sometimes wondered if I was supposed to believe certain descriptions, with the willing suspension of disbelief, or not.

I have enjoyed this story, but I look forward to be more transported by an adult Allende novel in the future!


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