As readers of this blog undoubtedly know, I love to read. Given the many distractions (and fears) that surround us these days, settling into the world of a book can offer a welcome respite. If you’ve ever wondered how a book becomes a best seller, this book will be of interest. Along the way, readers will find lots of suggestions for their TBR piles.

This title shows what readers were spending their book time exploring during different time periods. Interestingly, the author notes that the bestseller was born in the 1890s. From this beginning the author looks at what was being read in the decades up to the 2010s.

For example, the chapter on the 1970s is called The Age of Narcissism. McParland notes that this was a complex time in the country, in part because of the Vietnamese war. What did readers turn to? A few of the books mentioned include The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Love Story, Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex (but Were Afraid to Ask), and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. There is information and context for each title.

If this kind of exploration appeals, this book will offer some real pleasure. I enjoyed it and now have even more books to think about!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Bestseller by Robert McParland was interesting enough while I was reading but ultimately mostly forgettable and a skim read most of it. I do want to this this another try when I'm not in a reading slump though, as it seemed really cute.

I received a Digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fascinating read and a must for any bibliophile!

I love how this book focuses on books and how American's reading has changed over the years. Reading is important, and this book helps put that into perspective.

An engrossing read of popular American novels! Will definitely be adding several of the books mentioned to my ever-growing TBR. Thank you to NetGalley and the author for my free copy!

As a reference guide for bestselling books over the years and their correspondence with events of the times around their publication, this book is useful. As a book, though, or at least one that I hoped would include, if not be be comprised of, a more overarching perspective or illustration of why readers read, it was disappointing. I would have liked to see more of an illustration and analysis of how and why bestsellers reflect us, our society, perhaps with salient anecdotes from psychologists, literary experts, and the like. It might have even been useful to provide a breakdown of bestseller books by possible reader motives, something along the lines of "This contemporary book was probably a bestseller because readers enjoyed putting themselves in others' shoes, even if the shoes were only fictional," then a tally of which kind of bestseller has been the most popular over the years, or what the trends were. I would have been interested to see, for example, if the bestseller list indicated any kind of long-standing proclivity of readers to seek escape in their books, as opposed to learning opportunities.

As it was, though, I felt that Bestseller was too repetitive and episodic to hold my interest.

There was a fascinating read. I have never paid much attention to the books that are on the bestseller list, only glancing at it occasionally or when in book shops but McParland really discussed the topic in detail. The breakdown year by year meant that the contextual evidence really helped emphasis why these books succeeded.

This book is what the cover says it will be, but it is far to dry for my taste. I wish there had been more to look at or that it had been done in a different and more interesting style.

Bestseller was like a conversation with a good friend over the things that we love: books...It was absolutely perfect for "a cup of tea in front of the woodstove" kind of afternoon...

This book was fascinating. American bestsellers more than British perhaps but there was a lot of cross over and I got hooked on finding the best sellers for key years in my life.

Interesting to read about the history of trends in what people have been reading and how they have changed over time. Nice that the handy bibliography is included. I think it would appeal to a market of librarians, booksellers, and publishers.

A trip down memory lane - all the books I have read in my life! This book will appeal to all book lovers! Interesting and great book!

Most bibliophiles will enjoy this to some extent, but unfortunately it’s such a dry approach to such an interesting subject that I have put it aside for now, and will only refer to it as a reference book in the future. I certainly didn’t find it a book to engage me enough to read straight through. It’s a chronological survey of American bestsellers, as listed mainly by the New York Times and Publisher’s Weekly, with a fairly random approach to those titles the author has chosen to write about at some length – unfortunately giving away plenty of plot spoilers on the way. There are no actual lists, which are always a useful thing to have, and no illustrations to break up the text. All in all I found the book disappointing, especially when there are so many similar compendiums around which are far more entertaining.

This one is a reference book. It details all bestsellers in USA in last 100 years, along with reflection on how readers choice evolved over the years.

What genre produced most frequent bestsellers and which writers ruled the charts of Newyork times list and publishers weekly and recently amazon's book list.
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Author has intelligently mixed significant historical events in USA during last 100 years which definitely affected few of bestsellers and genres to evolve. It keeps reading the book interesting.
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Books and ebooks bestsellers lists were dominated by few brand of successful authors like Stephan King, John ghrism, James Patterson and Sheldon.
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Every aspiring author and booklover searching for next bestseller should read it. It is sort of reference book, so you can read it slowly, in bits and parts and revisit again and again.
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This may give few insights into how a bestseller is produced and who championed the bestseller formula.
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Thing which can be disliked is, lots of books and authors, who you have never heard about and their traces are erased off public conscience completely and you have to wait for familiar title and author to pop out so that you regain interest.
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But one book of its kind and I found around 25 bestsellers I want to read next year.
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Thanks author, netgalley and publisher for eARC for a honest review.

I enjoyed this book, if for no other reason than I added a ton of new books to my TBR. This book is also written extremely well.

This book was amazing, as it introduced me to some books that I had not thought to read before! It was also interesting to see how the trends in what people read changes pretty frequently.

DNF at 14%.

The introduction seemed to promise a historical analysis of past bestsellers, their historical context and whether or not they've endured to the present day. However, I didn't even make it through the 1930s - it's just a list of books that made some bestseller list or other, with a handful seemingly arbitrarily chosen to have their synopses appended, and even fewer were analyzed at all. Basically, I couldn't figure out the organization of this "narrative" (if we apply the term generously), so it was hard for me to stay interested.

If you have a high tolerance for dry history facts and you're interested in what books were popular through the decades, this might be one for you. Otherwise, I unfortunately can't recommend it.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this books as much as some others. While I did see many book titles I would have otherwise not know about, the organization style of the book for me was just too dry and I skimmed through it the whole way through. I'm sure other people who enjoy books with lots of lists or facts would enjoy this book though.

A wonderful reference book full of great suggestions great ides to perk my interest to add to my ever growing list of books I want to read.A book to go back to again& again.For all lovers of reading treasures books this is perfect for you.#netgalley #roman&littlefield

Bestseller: A Century of America's Favorite Books is more a reference book than an academic study of American popular reading. Robert McParland takes a chronological journey through the bestsellers lists of the past 100 years, looking at the books that were the top sellers, and at the lists themselves, mostly Publisher's Weekly and The New York Times lists. There is little analysis, nor are there any actual lists or charts, graphs, or any other images. McParland takes it decade by decade, then breaks each decade down year by year, and week by week. Clearly a lot of research went into the book.

It sounds dry as dust, but I found myself reading every word, shaking my head at what was popular in the early part of the century, remembering books I'd seen or read in more recent decades, and seeing patterns sometimes or making note of a book I wanted to find out more about. I suppose if you are a bookseller or publisher or a librarian, this book might be of particular interest to you, but I am none of those things and still found it quite fascinating.

The bibliography is excellent, I plan to track down several of the resources McParland mentions. On the other hand, the proof reading can be improved, there were many mistakes, all minor, but distracting nonetheless.

(Thanks to NetGalley and Rowman & Littlefield for a digital review copy.)