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.

Rebecca here -
Before I start my new gig at Booklist, I need to do one last thing for the competition! (hee hee) Register for Library Journal‘s webcast on weeding, “Out with the Old, In with the New: Transforming Libraries Through Weeding” and hear me wax poetic on one of my all time favorite library topics. Free registration, and don’t forget, even if you can’t make the live time, by registering in advance you’ll get notice of when the webinar is up and ready for viewing at your convenience.

Then, 2 weeks after that, I’ll be doing another webinar for Booklist. Head here to register for “What’s New in Reference: Fall 2011″, on October 18th. Again, registration is free and you should register even if you can’t make the live time.

A real press release, and everything!

Rebecca Vnuk joins Booklist as new editor, reference and collection management

Excuse the non-book related post, but I just had to spread this around.  As loyal ShelfRenewal readers may know, I (Rebecca) have a bit of an obsession with zombie fiction (um, as does quite a bit of the rest of the reading world, based on how many dang zombie books have been published these last couple of  years!)

What can I say, I’m pretty sure the world’s coming to a very unpretty end shortly, and I want to be fully prepared, so I’m reading all the post-Apocalyptic fiction that I can stomach.  When I came across this couple’s engagement photos... well, they speak for themselves.  Enjoy.

http://www.amandarynda.com/2011/08/zombie-engagement-photos/

Last month, I found the topic of guys reading (or rather, not reading) coming up in both my online world and in real life.  Ted Balcom, a blogging colleague of mine over at Booklist’s Book Group Buzz, was discussing the lack of male participants in book discussion groups.  Earlier that week, a group of librarians and readers who attended an author interview I was moderating began a lively discussion during the Q&A portion, wondering why men don’t attend as many literary events as women do, what can librarians and teachers do to promote reading to males, etc.

Which led me to take a look around, and yep, almost all of the book blogs I follow and enjoy are written by women.  That’s not to say that Karen and I haven’t tried to profile boy blogs as well (we have, they just are not out there in the same numbers!). So this week, I’m bringing you a decidedly male book blog.

This week’s Web Crush is the aptly named Men Reading Books.  Their simple tag line is, “Book summaries and opinions written by guys about books that other guys might consider reading.”.   Short but interesting annotations of a wide variety of books, geared towards men.  Need I say more?

Men, are you out there reading?  What are you reading?  Where do you get your suggestions?  Tell us!  If you write a book blog for guys, we may even Crush on ya!  (we’re easy like that.)

Oh!  And for those of you who thought this site was going to be something different, um, you’re looking for this site.

Really America? Has Suze Orman taught us nothing? If you get another credit card you will be paying off interest with money that should be going into your retirement account (which you must NEVER touch.) Honestly, Congress. There’s plenty of recent nonfiction about the debt crisis in America. Why not sprinkle a couple of novels into your next “Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be” display?

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Folly Beach: a Lowcountry Tale by Dorothea Benton Frank
Model Home by Eric Puchner
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter
Welcome to My Planet: Where English is Sometimes Spoken by Shannon Olson

You like us, you really like us… now “like” us, on Facebook!  We’d be ever so grateful…

http://www.facebook.com/ShelfRenewal

Geography’s a funny thing. In the Midwest, July means that  the corn’s as high as an elephant’s eye. In California it means that it’s time to bust out your Sith cape and roll down to San Diego for Comic-Con.  Neither one without its merits. But for your patrons who can’t get enough caped crusaders or CGI spectaculars, pull out these Geek Chic titles to reassure them that they’re in very good company.

Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share by Ken Denmead  

Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence by Paul Feig

Zombie Spaceship Wasteland: A Book by Patton Oswalt

Nerd Do Well: A Small Boy’s Journey to Becoming a Big Kid by Simon Pegg

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School by Alexandra Robbins

Just a Geek: Unflinchingly Honest Tales of the Search for Life, Love, and Fulfillment Beyond the Starship Enterprise by Wil Wheaton

Nope, not the May 21, 2011 End of Days. I’m talking about the Los Angeles-leveling earthquake imagined in writer/director/actor Albert Brooks’ new bestseller 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America. It’s nearly two decades in the future, and America’s first Jewish president has to deal not only with a natural disaster that could cripple the country, but also with a well-organized generation of young people who have had it with the resource-hogging elderly. Patrons who’ve reserved the heavily-promoted title may enjoy re-watching Broadcast News or Lost in America. They could also probably be persuaded to take a chance on some other savvy speculations and revelations.

The Librarian by Larry Beinhart
David Goldberg, an academic librarian of all things, gets a side job as a conservative activist and soon attracts the attention of a powerful group of wealthy right-wingers who want him gone.

Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
How could 29-year-old blogger Cassandra Devine have known that people would have strong opinions about her suggestion that baby boomers should be given government incentives to commit suicide? What? Like old people vote?

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
In a world in which Alaska, rather than Israel, has become the homeland for the Jews following World War II, Detective Meyer Landsman and his half-Tlingit partner Berko investigate the death of a heroin-addicted chess prodigy.

I’m Losing You by Bruce Wagner
The giant cell phone excesses of the ’90s are deliciously skewered in screenwriter Wagner’s cameo-heavy send up of Tinseltown.

Yes, I would love to go to a dinner party with Tina Fey, Steven Tyler, and Rob Lowe. I’d also like to linger over dessert with Betty White and Dick Van Dyke. Who wouldn’t? This week’s New York Times Bestseller List is pretty much a shelflist of your 700s. Celebrity memoirs are dominating the charts. Shania Twain and Ashely Judd are also part of the “You might know me from…” posse. So why shouldn’t librarians cash in on the marketing that publishers with much bigger budgets have done already? Dust off your other famous-name nonfiction and send your patrons home with armloads of artistic professional confessionals. Here’s just a sampling to get you started: