I’m sure at the beginning of this month, you were all inundated with Best-this-Best-that lists of 2011, yes?  But those lists likely all covered new books that came out in 2011.

How to qualify the best of the backlist?  The folks at Better World Books  (who do GREAT things with library discards – I mention them in all of my weeding workshops), who sell mostly used books, have provided their Top 25 Best-Selling Books of 2011. A list like this tends to reveal the kind of titles that have “staying power” rather than those that are currently topping mainstream lists. Take a look:

Better World Book’s Top 25 Books of 2011

1. The Shack
2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
3. The Kite Runner
4. To Kill a Mockingbird
5. Lord of the Flies
6. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
7. A Child Called “It”: One Child’s Courage to Survives
8. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
9. The Secret Life of Bees
10. StrengthsFinder 2.0
11. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2)
12. Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism
13. Love You Forever
14. The Help
15. Holes
16. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens
17. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
18. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
19. Animal Farm
20. Into the Wild
21. Number the Stars
22. Of Mice and Men
23. The Pillars of the Earth
24. The Hobbit
25. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

I’m sure that library circulation records would also be interesting to view,  just to see the most checked-out books of the year.  No surprises, of course, these titles all hit the “best of” lists in their respective years, I’m sure.  But interesting all the same.