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Weekly Words about BooksDECEMBER 29, 2013
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'Twas the Week Before Christmas, and What Books Were Selling?
| A look at the eight regional independent bookstore bestseller lists for the week ending Sunday, December 22 offer an interesting picture of what titles were most in demand as Christmas approached. On the Hardcover Fiction and Paperback Fiction & Nonfiction lists, three books dominated the lists across the country (as they have for several weeks), while Hardcover Nonfiction showed a bit more regional diversity.
On the fiction side, the book that I heard more praise for across the b oard from independent booksellers was Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, which has been atop the national indie bestseller list for several weeks. And in spite of strong showings by commercial stalwarts John Grisham (Sycamore Row) and Mitch Albom (The First Phone Call From Heaven), as well as beloved poet Mary Oliver (Dog Songs), The Goldfinch was clearly the title that most book shoppers wanted. Although the novel weighs in at nearly 800 pages, all I hear from booksellers is that they wanted to read more - high praise from folks with too much to read and too little time on their hands.
Similarly, the paperback nonfiction title that led the sales charge last week (and for several weeks previously) was Allie Brosh's quirky Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened, which  easily beat out the likes of Jennifer Holland (Unlikely Loves), Cheryl Strayed (Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail) and perennial reference favorites The World Almanac and Book of Facts and The Old Farmer's Almanac. As sometimes happens at this time of year, Hyperbole sold out at the largest book distributor last week, so some bookstores were unable to immediately replenish th eir stacks. But that didn't seem to slow down the sales nationally, and the temporary "out of stock" situation may only fuel demand into the new year. And before moving on, quick kudos to Wild, which remains in high demand after nine months at or near the top of indie bestseller lists. If you haven't yet read Strayed's amazing account of her life-changing trek, check it out the next time you visit your bookstore.
On the fiction side of paperbacks, well let's just say it helps to win a Nobel Prize. Canadian Alice Munro has long been regarded as perhaps our best living short story writer, and her latest collection, Dear Life, won critical acclaim and was an immediate bestseller when released in paperback in Augus t. But when Munro won the Nobel Prize for literature, Dear Life shot to the top of the lists and has remained ensconced for weeks. It's safe to say that the award had a lot to do with book's rise to number one - short stories generally don't sell quite as well as novels - but the fact remains that Munro's collection was more coveted in the week leading up to Christmas than other popular titles like Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins, Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette, and The Round House by Louise Erdrich (another prize winner, collecting the National Book Award in 2012). For the 82-year-old Munro, her reign at the top has not been short, and certainly it has been sweet.
The one battle for sales supremacy took place in Hardcover Nonfiction, where five titles were in the mix throughout the week. Unlike with other categories, the eight regional indie bestseller lists didn't look the same at all, with sales of individual titles shifting across the country. For the record, the order on the national Indie Next list went as follows:
1. The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin
2. Da vid and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
3. Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics by Charles Krauthammer
4. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb
5. One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson
But no regional list had those five in that order, or even in some instances those five titles at all. In the South,  Pat Conroy's memoir of his father, The Death of Santini, was very strong, and in the crew-happy Pacific Northwest Daniel James Brown's The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics was a close second to I Am Malala. Meanwhile, in Southern California, Johnny Cash: The Life by local author Robert Hilburn knocked conservative Washington Post columnist's Krauthammer's collection of writings out of the top five.
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YouTube Sensation Becomes Children's Book Hit
| | The appearance of the new picture book, What Does the Fox Say, on children's bestseller lists may not be a surprise to you, assuming you're one of the 300 million (and counting) folks who have viewed the YouTube video. But for clueless old Hut, the book snuck right up on me. The authors, credited as Ylvis in the book, are Norwegian comedians (and brothers) Bard and Vegard Ylvisaker. And while the wild success of  their goofy music video (which now boasts several parodies) provided the impetus for publishing the book in America, the two say the idea for a book came before the video was created. The problem was translating the text into English (watch the video and you'll understand), a challenge that Simon and Schuster gladly took on after 'What Does the Fox Say' went viral. Judging by the early sales, I'd say the fox says 'ka-ching.'
P.S. The brothers scored an added coup when they convinced Norwegian illustrator Svein Nyhus to provide artwork for the book, as you can see by the striking cover.
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Many of you already have a favorite local bookstore, but for those of you without such a relationship, this link will take you to a list of Northern California indie bookstores by region.
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A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
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My name is Hut Landon. I'm a former bookstore owner who now runs the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) in San Francisco.
My goal with this newsletter is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world.
I'm not into long, wordy reviews or literary criticism; I'd like HUT'S PLACE to be a quick, fun read for book buyers. If you have any friends who you think might like receiving this column each week, simply click on "Forward this email" below and enter their email address. There is also a box in which to add a short message.
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