Five things we learned from top book sales in 2017
Books help us take stock of where we are — as a society, as a generation, as thinkers. The written word is also, of course, a great way to escape: as evidenced by New York Times’ best-sellers list for the year, which includes thrillers like Year One, Origin and The Rooster Bar. New non-fiction best-seller Collusion, about connections between President Trump and his administration to those looking to influence the 2016 election, couldn’t have come at a better time — it was rushed to press but author Luke Harding sounds like he has a firm grasp on collusion and the presidency.
Amazon’s list of the year’s top sellers gives us a slightly different view. Aside from the fact that dogs took their rightful place ahead of cats in the never-ending popularity contest, we learned a few more things, too.
- We want to make sense of the world. Hillbilly Elegy, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and Sapiens are all examples of best sellers that make sense of the broader, cosmic world around us and our place in it.
- Success is paramount. Kindle readers still love Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People — from 1937. Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, originally published in 1989, also tops the list.
“I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among my people,” said [Charles] Schwab, “the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.”
3. (or 2a). On success — we all want it but want to do it our own way. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck and Tim Ferris’s Four Hour Workweek (a personal favorite) top the charts. I actually like to work and don’t want a four-hour work week. But, fundamentally, Ferris’s book is about choices and, to turn a phrase I learned recently, architecting your own destiny.
4. Reality sucks. There are plenty of reality-based fears to play with in best-sellers The Handmaidens Tale, It and Harry Potter.
5. A nostalgic pining for another era. As the curtain has been violently ripped down between our leaders and the so-called rest of us — we find they’re not so smart or calculating as we thought — we live in an increasingly crass world. I think it helps explain the rise of Amor Towles’ The Gentleman in Moscow. As Ron Charles of the Washington Post put it in a review:
In our own allegedly classless society, we seem to have retained only what’s deplorable about aristocracy — the oppression, the snobbery, the racism — and thrown out those qualities that were worth retaining. Which makes “The Gentleman of Moscow” an endearing reminder of the graciousness of real class. It has nothing to do with money; it’s predicated on the kind of moral discipline that never goes out of style.
At Peachill, we looked back this year in our books at the heroics and values of other times and places. All of these helping us make sense of the present and ourselves. And while this year is running out, we hope to work with more of you next year to make your book idea a reality.
