Image via CrunchBase

The New York Time books section had an article yesterday about Independent book stores.  And it was actually fairly up beat.  The summary is that, even though there were no big breakout books this Christmas, independent books stores are actually doing fairly well.  And the Kobo partnership with independent bookstores to sell Kobo ereaders and have people buy ebooks from their local independent bookstores is actually working and profitable.

It is just nice to read an article that isn’t assuming the end of the book world as we know it.

Amazon Announced its best selling books of 2012 lists today.

It is interesting to see the minor variations between the print and kindle versions of the list.  For instance, the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid was #1 in the Kids & Teens Print list, but #16 in the kindle list.  (I presume because it is oriented toward younger kids that do not have kindle yet.)

On the adult side, 4 of the to 6 kindle books were erotic fiction, but only 3 of the 20 print books were erotic fiction.  Also 11 of the top 20 print books were non-fiction, but only 6 of the top 48 were non-fiction on the kindle side.

• Top 100 Adult Print Books of 2012
• Top 100 Kids & Teens Print Books of 2012
• Top 100 Adult Kindle Books of 2012
• Top 100 Kids & Teens Kindle Books of 2012

Bookwi.se has grown significantly this year.  The average daily visits to the site are six times higher than last year.  And in the last couple months RSS and email views are about three times that of the visits to the actual site.  In order to make Bookwi.se the best site it can be I would like you to answer 8 simple questions.  Thank you in advance.

The drum beat of the news in regard to publishers is that the traditional publishers are dying.  Some reporters try to assert that reading is dying (which it isn’t according to several different studies) or that paper books are dying (paperbacks are slowly waning, but hardcovers are holding steady or slightly growing).

So I found it interesting that RandomHouse is giving every employee (5343 according to Wikipedia) a $5000 end of year bonus.  If the employee count is right, that is about $26.7 million dollars in employee bonuses against a 2011 of $1.83 billion Euros (it is a European company). According to a Washington Press article, the main driver of the bonus is the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy which has sold more than 35 million copies this year (another article put the total sales of Fifty Shades trilogy at around 60 million worldwide as of Nov).  There have been other Random House books that have sold well, but it is 50 Shades that has been the surprise hit.

I just noticed this morning that the Kindle Paperwhites are back in stock for Christmas.  With a few caveats (no audio, no buttons) the paperwhite is definitely the best kindle out there.  (Bookwi.se initial impressions.  Full review)

If $119 is too much, the Kindle Basic (my main kindle) is a good alternative for a little more than half the price.

If a tablet is more your style, all of the Kindle Fires are in stock.

Kindle Fire $159

Kindle Fire HD $199

Kindle Fire HD 8.9 $299

Kindle Fire HD 8.9 4G $499

Audible.com published their best books of 2012 list recently.  I am doing better on Audible’s list.  I have have read 6 of the mentioned books.  But there are a lot of books, 14 categories with 4 books in most categories and then six editors all got to pick their own four books.  The book of the year is

Beautiful Ruins

The most read review from November 2012. Click the titles for the full review.

Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me by Karen Swallow Prior

I love books.  I love people that love books.  I love books about books by people that love books.

Karen Swallow Prior is an English Professor, writer, and essayist.  She has written a memoir highlighting the books (and poems) that have changed her life and made her who she is today.

Each chapter highlight a book and then uses that book to help tell the story of her life.  Sometimes the book helps her to learn, sometimes the book helps her to explain.  But in each case, it is her as a reader that comes through….

Embracing Obscurity: Becoming Nothing in Light of God’s Everything by Anonomous

Takeaway: Obscurity, humility, smallness.  All undervalued and difficult disciplines in a world of individualism, social media and mixed messages.

I ran across the very interesting book Embracing Obscurity on Tim Challies’ blog.  His review gave a bit of the back story and resulted in the book being put on sale for a couple weeks at Amazon.

An anonymous author decided to write a book about humility.  The author realized that writing a book about humility was in itself an un-humble activity so he (and I think it is pretty clearly a he) decided to write and publish a book secretly.  Even his family is unaware.

Continue Reading…

A friend of mine is trying a digital experiment with his latest book.  Dan Mayhew is releasing it as a serial.  The first chapter is free and you pay $0.40 for each additional chapter.

I strongly recommend Dan’s other books The Butterfly and the Stone (about parenting a prodigal), Sword of Submission (which I have read early editions but not reviewed) and Pulpit Fiction (a series of humorous essays).

Support independent authors.  They often have very good content and are doing it for the love of the art.

Image from Slate’s Overlooked Books of 2012 Article

Slate posted their Best Books of 2012 and then the Most Overlooked Books of 2012.  That along with the New York Times Lists of Best Children’s Books and 100 Notable Books of 2012, The 2012 National Books Award Winners and the Amazon Lists of Best Books of 2012 and Best Children’s Books of 2012.  There are some overlaps, but out of the 200 or so unduplicated best books of 2012, I have read precisely one of them (Divergent which was on Amazon’s best Teen Books list).

It is not that I don’t read, I am on track to read between 180 and 190 books this year.  Part of it is that I read more genre fiction and Christian non-fiction, both of which tend to not show up on these Best of.. lists.  But there are just so many books!

I will start putting together my best of list for the year in the next couple weeks.  What are your best books of 2012 (whether written or read in 2012)?

The New York Times list of best children’s books are out.  I am a fan of the young adult genre, but I don’t read much of middle grade or picture books.  That being said, I have not read a single one of these books.  John Green is on the list, and I have read two of his books in the past couple weeks, but not his newest.

Also a friend of mine from college’s husband is the author of the picture book King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson, but I have not read that either.

Here is the full list.