We spend plenty of time here on The Millions telling all of you what we’ve been reading, but we are also quite interested in hearing about what you’ve been reading. By looking at our Amazon stats, we can see what books Millions readers have been buying, and we decided it would be fun to use those stats to find out what books have been most popular with our readers in recent months. Below you’ll find our Millions Top Ten list for August.
This
Month
Last
Month
Title
On List
1.
1.
A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World
4 months
2.
–
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
1 month
3.
2.
Beautiful Ruins
6 months
4.
3.
The Round House
2 months
5.
4.
Well-Read Women: Portraits of Fiction’s Most Beloved Heroines
5 months
6.
5.
The Son
5 months
7.
–
Cosmicomics
1 month
8.
6.
Reading Like a Writer
2 months
9.
9.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
2 months
10.
10.
My Struggle: Book 1
2 months
When it comes to literary fiction bestseller lists, is there a more reliable fixture than Haruki Murakami? Not only is the author prolific — having published thirteen novels (including a 1,000+ pager!) over his career — but he’s also incredibly popular. It was reported last year that in his native Japan, copies of his latest book, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, were flying off shelves to the tune of a million copies per week. And his reach is increasing, if you can believe it. A recent poll indicated that the author’s popularity is growing in Korea, and his work has been adapted for the screen in Vietnam. (His 2011 doorstopper, 1Q84, was banned from China, but that could be viewed as a mark of success depending on who you ask.)
So of course it should come as no surprise to see his latest novel break into our latest Top Ten, even despite Woody Brown’s fairly tepid review of the work for our site. “All of the hallmarks of Murakami’s style are present in Colorless Tsukuru,” Brown wrote back in August. “But for perhaps the first time … they seem flat and uninteresting, almost overused, as if the novel is a parody of his earlier work.” Ultimately, Brown notes, it’s a novel that, like Franz Liszt’s “Le mal du pays” (which figures prominently in the book), is “aloof, quiet, and finally, dissonant.”
Here’s hoping his next effort — due before the end of the year — is stronger, although it seems like no matter what, it’ll sell plenty of copies.
Meanwhile, the Top Ten saw the emergence this month of Italo Calvino’s classic work of “scientific” fiction, Cosmicomics. Undoubtedly Millions readers have Ted Gioia’s tantalizing review (“Italo Calvino’s Science Fiction Masterpiece“) to thank for putting the under-appreciated gem onto their radars:
Imagine a brilliant work of science fiction that wins the National Book Award and is written by a contender for the Nobel Prize in literature. Imagine that it is filled with dazzling leaps of the imagination, stylish prose, unique characters, philosophical insights, and unexpected twists and turns, but also draws on scientific concepts at every juncture. Imagine that it ranks among the finest works in the sci-fi genre.
And then imagine that almost no science fiction fan has read it, or even heard about it.
Rounding out this month’s list, we see the continued dominance of Rachel Cantor’s A Highly Unlikely Scenario and Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins. Both Well-Read Women and The Son remain popular mainstays as well. The list is due for a major shake-up in two months, as all four will likely be gracing our Hall of Fame by October and November. Will Knausgaard hang on to the last spot of the list by then? Will it have moved up? Will Book 2 have cracked the rankings? Only time will tell.
Near Misses: Americanah, Jesus’ Son, Bark, and Just Kids. See Also: Last month’s list.
I find it beyond interesting that “The Mystery Guest” (no. 10 on list) has maybe 7 reviews on Amazon. Yet The Millions “readers” are all over it, and have been for 4 months? I’m not entirely sure what to make of that. But I DO know this: Over at Goodreads.com, there are 87!! reviews, not to mention over 300 total ratings on the book. Maybe you guys should consider linking to a somewhat more actively literate and engaged group. (I’m still puzzled by the disconnect at Amazon)
Mike, The reason Millions readers dig A Mystery Guest probably begins here. We also reviewed it in 2007.
As for why we (with some reservations) link to Amazon, this piece explains the reasoning (particularly section 3).