bestsellers – Me and My Kindle

More Surprises From Amazon’s 2013 Best-Seller List

January 8, 2014January 8, 2014 meandmykindle Leave a comment

Another year has gone by — and Amazon’s released a fascinating new list revealing which books which most popular in 2013. But they’re not just looking at the Kindle best-sellers (or the print best-sellers). Amazon’s combined print and ebook sales, and calculated which books were read more than any others last year — regardless of their format!

For a shortuct to Amazon’s list, point your browser to
tinyurl.com/AmazonOverallBestsellers

Here’s Amazon’s list of the 20 best-selling books of 2013.

1. Inferno by Dan Brown
2. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
3. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
4. The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
5. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
6. The Hit by David Baldacci
7. Sycamore Row by John Grisham
8. Entwined with You by Sylvia Day
9. Never Go Back by Lee Child
10. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
11. Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson
12. Doctor Sleep> by Stephen King
13. 12th of Never by James Patterson
14. Damaged: The Ferro Family by H.M. Ward
15. Killing Jesus: A History by Bill O’Reilly
16. Second Honeymoon by James Patterson
17. Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts
18. The Billionaire’s Obsession: The Complete Collection by J.S. Scott
19. Surrender Your Love by J.C. Reed
20. Six Years by Harlan Coben

The first thing you notice is that James Patterson is really popular. He wrote four of the 20 most popular titles of 2013. But the second thing you notice is he’s not nearly as popular in print. Just one of those four books made it onto Amazon’s list of the top 100 best-selling print books of 2013 — 12th of Never (which came in at #77).

And yet six James Patterson titles are among Amazon’s top 100 best-selling Kindle ebooks of 2013. In fact, all six of them are in the top 60, and three of them made it into the top 15 !

Alex Cross, Run (#10)
12th of Never (Women’s Murder Club) (#12)
Second Honeymoon (#13)
Gone (Michael Bennett) (#40)
Mistress (#53)
Private Berlin (#55)

The moral of the story is probably that 2013 was a good year for James Patterson. He even landed another book on Amazon’s list of the best-sellers in their “Kids & Teens” category — a mystery novel titled Confessions: The Private School Murders. Maybe Amazon moved it onto their “Kids & Teens” list to try to free up a spot for another author who wasn’t James Patterson. But another message might be that in order to make it onto Amazon’s best-seller list — you had to sell a lot of Kindle ebooks.

I took another look at Amazon’s list of the best-selling Kindle ebooks of 2013, which offers convincing proof about the importance of ebooks sales. In fact, for a moment, I had to confirm that I was reading the right list, because Amazon’s list of Kindle ebook best-sellers is nearly identical to Amazon’s list of the overall bestsellers for 2013. In many cases, a book ranked much lower on Amazon’s list of print best-sellers — but still earned a high rank on the overall list because of its high position on the list of the best-selling Kindle ebooks. And amazingly, some of their overall best-selling titles for the year didn’t even appear anywhere on Amazon’s list of the top 100 best-selling print titles.

Here’s Amazon’s list of the best-selling Kindle ebooks of 2013

1 Inferno: A Novel (Robert Langdon) by Dan Brown
[#1 on Overall list]
[#2 on Print list]

2. The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
[#4 on Overall list]
[Not on Print list]

3. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
[#3 on Overall list]
[#12 on Print list]

4. And the Mountains Echoed: A Novel by Khaled Hosseini
[#2 on Overall list]
[#4 on Print list]

5. The Hit (Will Robie) by David Baldacci
[#6 on Overall list]
[#40 on Print list]

6. Sycamore Row by John Grisham
[#7 on Overall list]
[#15 on Print list]

7. Entwined with You (A Crossfire Novel) by Sylvia Day
[#8 on Overall list]
[#24 on Print list]

8. Never Go Back: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child
[#9 on Overall list]
[#38 on Print list]

9. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
[#10 on Overall list]
[#53 on Print list]

10. Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson
[#11 on Overall list]
[Not on Print list]

11. Damaged: The Ferro Family by H.M. Ward
[#14 on Overall list]
[Not on Print list]

12. 12th of Never (Women’s Murder Club) by James Patterson
[#13 on Overall list]
[#65 on Print list]

13. Second Honeymoon by James Patterson
[#16 on Overall list]
[Not on Print list]

14. The Billionaire’s Obsession: The Complete Collection Boxed Set (Mine For Tonight, Mine For Now, Mine Forever, Mine Completely) by J.S. Scott
[#18 on Overall list]
[Not on Print list]

15. Surrender Your Love by J.C. Reed
[#19 on Overall list]
[Not on Print list]

16. The Bet by Rachel Van Dyken
[Not in Overall top 20]
[Not on Print list]

17. Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts
[#17 on Overall list]
[Not on Print list]

18. Six Years by Harlan Coben
[#10 on Overall list]
[#92 on print list]

19. Falling Into You by Jasinda Wilder
[Not in Overall top 20]
[Not on print list]

20. High Heat: A Jack Reacher Novella by Lee Child
[Not in Overall top 20]
[Not on print list]

For a shortcut to Amazon’s lists, point your browser to
http://tinyurl.com/AmazonBooks2013

Surprises in Amazon’s 2013 Best-Seller List

December 31, 2013January 1, 2014 meandmykindle Leave a comment

Amazon’s announced their list of the best-selling ebooks of 2013 — and it’s got a big surprise. Stephen King had two of the top 10 best-selling print books of the year –but neither one of them is among the top twenty best-selling Kindle ebooks. In fact, 13 of the top 20 best-selling print books don’t even appear anywhere on Amazon’s list of the top 100 best-selling Kindle ebooks. It’s like print book buyers are living in an entirely different world!

For a shortcut to Amazon’s lists, point your browser to
http://tinyurl.com/AmazonBooks2013

Here’s Amazon’s list of their 20 best-selling print books of 2013

1. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
(#27 among Kindle best-sellers)

2. Inferno by Dan Brown
(#1 among Kindle best-sellers)

3. Killing Jesus by Martin Dugard
(#40 among Kindle best-sellers)

4. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
(#4 among Kindle best-sellers)

5. Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics by Charles Krauthammer
[Not on Kindle list]

6. The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia by Akira Himekawa
[Not available as a Kindle ebook]

7. Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton
[Not on Kindle List]

8. Joyland (Hard Case Crime) by Stephen King
[Not available as Kindle ebook]

9. Happy, Happy, Happy: My Life and Legacy as the Duck Commander by Mark Schlabach
[Not on Kindle list]

10. Doctor Sleep: A Novel by Stephen King
[#22 among Kindle best-sellers]

11. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
[Not on Kindle List]

12. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
[#3 among Kindle best-sellers]

13. The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic by Mark R. Levin
[Not on Kindle list]

14. The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays: 140 Step-by-Step Recipes for Simple, Scrumptious Celebrations by Ree Drummond
[Not on Kindle list]

15. Sycamore Row by John Grisham
[#6 among Kindle best-sellers]

16. It’s All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great by Gwyneth Paltrow
[Not available as Kindle ebook]

17. The FastDiet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting by Michael Mosley
[Not on Kindle list]

18. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan
[Not on Kindle list]

19. Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance by Glen Cordoza
[Not available for Kindle]

20. Soul Healing Miracles: Ancient and New Sacred Wisdom, Knowledge, and Practical Techniques for Healing the Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, and Physical Bodies by Zhi Gang Sha
[Not on Kindle list]

Yes, four of the top 20 best-selling print books simply weren’t available as Kindle ebooks. But nine of them were available as Kindle ebooks — and yet still failed to even make it into Amazon’s list of the top 100 Kindle best-sellers for 2013. In some cases there’s other reasonable explanations. (For example, Humans of New York is a coffee table book filled with photographs.) And in some cases, the explanation is even more interesting.

Stephen King made it onto both lists with Dr. Sleep, a fascinating horror novel which lets its readers catch up with the little boy from The Shining. (Danny Torrence is now “a flawed middle-aged man with a tragic past”, according to the book’s description…) But Stephen King had a special place in his heart for his new contribution to the “Hard Case Crime” series of books, according to its page at Amazon. King called his new novel Joyland “One of my favorites,” and said “I also loved the paperbacks I grew up with as a kid, and for that reason, we’re going to hold off on e-publishing this one for the time being. Joyland will be coming out in paperback, and folks who want to read it will have to buy the actual book.”

In fact, it’s not just Stephen King who was enjoying mystery novels in 2013. “Last year’s best seller list was filled with Fifty Shades and contemporary romance,” noted Amazon’s Editorial Director of Books and Kindle. But in a statement announcing this year’s best-sellers, she noted that “in 2013 Mysteries & Thrillers captured readers attention, with 11 of the top 20 books falling in that category!” And she had one more interesting piece of trivia. If you look at Amazon’s top 20 best-sellers, 19 out of the 20 sold more Kindle ebook editions than their printed editions.

The only exception was Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.

Here’s Amazon’s list of their top 20 best-selling Kindle ebooks.

1 Inferno: A Novel (Robert Langdon) by Dan Brown
                                   [#2 on Print list]
2. The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
                                   [Not on Print list]
3. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
                                   [#12 on print list]
4. And the Mountains Echoed: A Novel by Khaled Hosseini
                                   [#4 on print list]
5. The Hit (Will Robie) by David Baldacci
                                   [#40 on print list]
6. Sycamore Row by John Grisham
                                   [#15 on print list]
7. Entwined with You (A Crossfire Novel) by Sylvia Day
                                   [#24 on print list]
8. Never Go Back: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child
                                   [#38 on print list]
9. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
                                   [#53 on print list]
10. Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson
                                   [Not on print list]
11. Damaged: The Ferro Family by H.M. Ward
                                   [Not on print list]
12. 12th of Never (Women’s Murder Club) by James Patterson
                                   [#65 on print list]
13. Second Honeymoon by James Patterson
                                   [Not on print list]
14. The Billionaire’s Obsession: The Complete Collection Boxed Set (Mine For Tonight, Mine For Now, Mine Forever, Mine Completely) by J.S. Scott
                                   [Not on print list]
15. Surrender Your Love by J.C. Reed
                                   [Not on print list]
16. The Bet by Rachel Van Dyken
                                   [Not on print list]
17. Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts ‘
                                   [Not on print list]
18. Six Years by Harlan Coben
                                   [#92 on print list]
19. Falling Into You by Jasinda Wilder
                                   [Not on print list]
20. High Heat: A Jack Reacher Novella by Lee Child
                                   [Not on print list]

For a shortcut to Amazon’s lists, point your browser to
http://tinyurl.com/AmazonBooks2013

Amazon Announces Strange Sales Milestones

December 29, 2011December 30, 2011 meandmykindle Leave a comment

If you bought a copy of the book Steve Jobs, you’re part of a very strange milestone. It was Amazon’s #1 best-selling book this holiday season, and today Amazon announced their customers “purchased enough copies…to create a stack taller than Mt. Everest!”

It’s an annual Amazon tradition — the fun (but nearly-meaningless) statistics about their massive holiday sales. For example, “The cumulative weight of the Bowflex 552 Adjustable Dumbbells purchased by Amazon customers would outweigh more than 70 adult elephants.” And “If you unfolded and stacked each pair of jeans purchased by Amazon customers this holiday, the height would be 2,500 times taller than the Statue of Liberty.”

But they’ve also included some real information in their annual press release. For example, Amazon’s announced their best-selling books for this year’s holiday season.

    “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson
    “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever”
    “11/22/63” by Stephen King

And they’re also releasing a separate set of figures for the holiday best-sellers in Kindle ebooks!

    “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins
    Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins
    The Litigators” by John Grisham

It’s also interesting to hear stories about Amazon’s luckiest customer, who placed an order at 2:35 on Saturday afternoon — the day before Christmas — and actually received their order on the same day, just 3 hours and 40 minutes later! They’d ordered a rechargeable pack of batteries, and they shipped it using Amazon’s “Local Express Delivery” service. It offers one-day shipping for $10 in ten different cities — or just $3.99 if you’re just purchasing a gift card. (And it’s just $3.99 to deliver any order if you’re a member of Amazon’s Prime shipping program.) Not every item is always available for one-day shipping — check its “product description” page on Amazon.com to make sure. But here’s a list of the 10 cities where Amazon’s now offering the one-day shipping option — grouped by the cut-off time for placing your orders (using their local time).

1 p.m.
Seattle

11:00 a.m.
Las Vegas:

    10:30
    Baltimore
    Boston
    Washington, D.C.

    10 a.m.
    New York City (and parts of New Jersey)
    Philadelphia

9:30 a.m.
Phoenix

    7:00 a.m.
    Chicago
    Indianapolis

Interestingly, the cut-off time for Seattle is supposed to be 1:00 p.m. But apparently the luckiest customer of the year placed their order more than 90 minutes later — and still received their batteries on the same day!

And if you look carefully, you can even extract some real numbers from the rest of Amazon’s descriptive statistics. For example, “Amazon customers purchased enough sweaters to outfit each of Santa’s reindeer during Christmas Eve deliveries for the next 14,000 years.” It’s like one of those “story problems” that high school students dread in their math class. (Eight reindeer — plus one more, if you count Rudolph — would need nine sweaters for Christmas Eve, so if Amazon outfitted them for the next 14,000 years, that’d be nine times 14,000 — or 126,000 sweaters….) That doesn’t seem like a lot of sweaters, until you remember that they were all purchased online at Amazon.com. Though there’s still no way of knowing which sweaters, or how much they cost.

It’s as though Amazon is sending reporters on a fun scavenger hunt for their actual sales figures. They’re reporting that “Amazon customers purchased enough HeatMax HotHands Handwarmers to give a pair to each resident of Iceland.” According to Wikipedia, the population of Iceland is about 320,000, so that’s also the number of handwarmers that were sold — 320,000. But they’re distributed in boxes of 10, boxes of 40, and also individually, so there’s still no way to calculate how many boxes were actually sold. And it could be as low as 8,000 boxes, representing sales of just $160,000…

Here’s two more “math puzzles” from Amazon — some interesting sales milestones from the great holiday shopping season of 2011.

“Amazon customers purchased enough copies of Just Dance 3 to give 15 copies to each person who participated in setting the world record for simultaneous dancing.”

“Amazon customers purchased enough Rory’s Story Cubes to give a cube to each person watching the New Year’s Eve ball drop live at Times Square.”

But there’s one question that even Amazon can’t answer. They announced’d their customers “purchased enough copies of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs book to create a stack taller than Mt. Everest.”

So how many ebook versions would they have to sell to reach the top of Mt. Everest?

Amazon Unveils a Free Ebook Library

November 2, 2011November 2, 2011 meandmykindle 1 Comment

“Wow! That’s fricking awesome!” my girlfriend said when I told her the news. Amazon’s making thousands of new ebooks available for free to anyone’s who’s subscribed to Amazon’s Prime shipping service. The service offers one year of free two-day shipping for a flat fee of $79 — and as a bonus, it includes free access to Amazon’s online library of movies and TV shows. Now as an added incentive, you’ll also get access to “the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library.”

“Kindle owners can now choose from thousands of books to borrow for free,” Amazon explained today in their press release, “including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers – as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates.” The selection looks very appealing — I see over 5,000 ebooks, and they’re ebooks that I’ve actually heard of, and ebooks I actually want to read. For example, there’s Moneyball Michael Lewis’s exploration of professional baseball (which was recently turned into a movie with Brad Pitt). And this library also includes Lewis’s other more-recent books about Wall Street — The Big Short and Liars’ Poker — plus the entire Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

And whether or not you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can still can browse the library right now on your Kindle. Just go to front page of the Kindle Store. (One way to do this is by pressing your Kindle’s Alt key and the HOME button at the same time.) Then select the link at the top of the page (in the second column) which says “See all categories”. The link triggers a pop-up menu, and as of today the bottom of that menu is displaying a brand new choice: the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. Click the link, and you’ll see over 5,000 titles to choose from!

Kindle Store Menu with Lending Library link

They’re sorted by which ebooks are the best-selling, which means three of the first four choices are from Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy. But there’s a link at the top-right of the page which lets you narrow the selection into 28 categories — like fiction, nonfiction, mystery, humor… “Owning a Kindle just got even better…,” Amazon’s CEO said in a statement today. “Prime Members now have exclusive access to a huge library of books to read on any Kindle device at no additional cost and with no due dates.”

Remember, you can only check out one ebook a month, but at least some Prime members are feeling excited. “I read really fast,” my girlfriend told me, “and if I can read it without having to pay for it and then return it to the lending library — that’s fabulous!” In fact, she belongs to a book club, and at least three of the books they chose to read are already available for free in the new lending library. (There’s Water for Elephants and The Finkler Question.)

So how can Amazon afford to loan the ebooks for free? In some cases, Amazon is purchasing a title each time it is borrowed by a reader…,” their press release explained. Amazon’s getting the cheaper wholesale price, but still covering the cost themselves “as a no-risk trial to demonstrate to publishers the incremental growth and revenue opportunity that this new service presents.” And for “the vast majority” of the library’s ebooks, Amazon’s just negotiated a single flat fee with the publisher for the right to include the book in their lending library.

The bottom line is that now you’ll have a wider selection of free ebooks to choose from. And “Just as with any other Kindle book, your notes, highlights and bookmarks in borrowed books will be saved,” Amazon’s press release adds, “so you’ll have them later.” I feel like this is a news story that speaks for itself, so I’ll give Amazon the last word. On the web page for their lending library, they explain the entire program in just eight words.

Own a Kindle + Prime Membership = Read for free

What’s Amazon’s Most Popular Kindle?

October 14, 2011October 16, 2011 meandmykindle 1 Comment

I’ve been studying Amazon’s best-seller lists, trying to figure out which Amazon products are the most popular. Each hour, Amazon updates the lists for each category — including the “Electronics” department, where all their Kindles are listed. I realized today that it’s a great source of information about the new Kindles. And it seems to offer a definitive answer to the question: which of Amazon’s new Kindles is the most popular?

It’s their full-color touchscreen Kindle Fire tablet. In fact, it’s the #1 best-seller in Amazon’s entire electronics section — even though it’s also one of Amazon’s most expensive Kindles ever. But the #2 best-selling Kindle — both last week and this week — is Amazon’s least expensive Kindle ever. It’s the $79 Kindle, which ships with sponsored screensavers and “Special Offers”, and it seems to settle the question as to whether customers would accept ads on their Kindles in order to get a cheaper price.

In fact, the next four Kindles on the best-seller list also all include the special offers and sponsored screensavers. The third best-selling Kindle is Amazon’s other new model, the Kindle Touch, and again, consumers are opting for the cheapest one — the WiFi-only version that ships with advertising for $99. And surprisingly, the next best-selling Kindle is the old Kindle 3 — now called the “Kindle Keyboard”. (But again, it’s the cheaper $99 WiFi-only version which ships with “Special Offers.”)

This isn’t just a temporary phenomenon. I checked this list one week ago, and its rankings were exactly the same for the top four best-selling Kindles. In fact, since they were released 17 days ago, all Amazon’s new Kindles have stayed on their list of the top 100 best-selling electronics products. But it gets more interesting when you realize how many other versions there are of the new Kindles — and watch how they’ve fluctuated up and down on the list.

#5 is now the 3G version of the Kindle Touch (with Special Offers). Apparently even consumers who were willing to pay a little more for 3G connectivity still wanted to save money by buying the Special Offers version. Even a week ago, it was still in the #7 spot, and you’ll see the same trend in the #6 best-selling Kindle. It’s the 3G version of the Kindle Keyboard with advertising, proving that even consumers who were willing to pay a little more for 3G connectivity still wanted to save money by buying the Special Offers version.

But the #7 spot went to the international version of the WiFi-only basic Kindle without advertisements. And last week, it was in the #5 spot — so there’s still a few bargain hunters who just won’t buy a Kindle if it’s got advertising. Confirming that trend, the #8 spot — both this week and last week — is the cheaper WiFi-only version of the Kindle Keyboard without advertisements. Some shoppers were willing to forgo 3G connectivity — but not the ability to own a Kindle without advertising. In fact, the #11 best-selling Kindle this week is also the ad-free version of the WiFi-only basic Kindle (for $109) — the non-international version. But the ad-hating consumers seem to represent a smaller piece of the Kindle market. Proving this, I see that one Kindle has dropped out of the top ten altogether. The #9 best-selling Kindle used to be the ad-free, 3G version of the Kindle Keyboard at $189. This week, it’s fallen all the way to the #12 spot.

And I had to laugh when I saw which product claimed the last two slots in top 10. Apple’s iPod touch has now claimed both those spots — #9 for the 8-gigabyte version, and #10 for the 32-gigabyte version. I’ve been writing about Apple’s fight for dominance in the tablet market , and it looks like on Amazon’s best-seller list, you can watch it happening in real time. Last week, there was only only non-Kindle product in the top 10 — and it wasn’t from Apple. Instead, the #10 spot went to Garmin’s 5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (whic this week is #13).

Of course, the lists can’t tell you how many Kindles have been sold — but it’s still a fun source of other trivia. For example, I think it’s amazing that the Kindle Keyboard has now racked up reviews from over 32,990 people!

I wonder how many reviews the Kindle Fire tablets will have one year from today?

New York Times Announces the Best-Selling Ebooks

February 11, 2011February 11, 2011 meandmykindle 4 Comments

The New York Times ebook best-seller list

It’s finally happened! I stayed up late Thursday night to watch a very historic moment. The New York Times finally published its first best-seller list which includes ebooks!

They’d spent two full years working on a system to track ebook sales, according to a November article in the Times. “It was clear that e-books were taking a greater and greater share of total sales,” a Times’ editor explained, ” and we wanted to be able to tell our readers which titles were selling and how they fit together with print sales.” In fact, some publishers predicted ebooks would become 25% of their sales within the next two to three years — saying that ebooks already represented 10% of their sales — so the Times really needed to change. “To give the fullest and most accurate possible snapshot of what books are being read at a given moment you have to include as many different formats as possible,” said an editor at the Times’ Book Review, “and e-books have really grown, thereâ€™s no question about it.”

But that’s an understatement — at least, judging by the lists, since there’s a remarkable pattern which suggests that ebooks have already become the industry standard. The Times reported the best-selling ebooks as well as the best-selling print books, and then also reported which books sold the most after combining both their print and ebook sales. But it turns out that two of those three lists were identical! Here’s the top five best-selling ebooks.

  1. TICK TOCK, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
  2. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson
  3. THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, by Stieg Larsson
  4. THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETâ€™S NEST, by Stieg Larsson
  5. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, by Sara Gruen

But when you calculate the top five overall best-sellers — adding in the print sales to the ebook sales — nothing changes. Adding the print sales had no effect on the ranking of what were the top five best-selling ebooks. (Or even the top seven best-selling ebooks, if you read the Times‘ extended list.)

And the pattern is the same for non-fiction ebooks — at least, for the first four titles on the list. Whether you do or don’t include print books, the rankings are exactly the same.

  1. UNBROKEN, by Laura Hillenbrand
  2. HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent
  3. BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER, by Amy Chua
  4. DECISION POINTS, by George W. Bush

The only major difference was in the #5 position, suggesting ebook readers have slightly different tastes. The fifth best-selling ebook was $#*! My Dad Says — whereas on the combined print and ebook list, it only reached the #11 spot. And it looks also like a Harlequin romance novel was able to crash its way into the #8 spot on the best-selling fiction list.

What does it all mean? I’ve heard it said that the world changes before we realize that it’s changed. So I’m wondering now if the ebook has already permanently altered the way that we read. In November the Times credited the Kindle (and the iPad) for increasing ebook sales — and noted that ebook sales actually tripled between 2009 and 2010. (“According to the Association of American Publishers, which receives sales data from publishers, e-book sales in the first nine months of 2010 were $304.6 million, up from $105.6 million from the same period in 2009, a nearly 190 percent increase.”) What’s interesting about Friday’s historic event is the Times’ is America’s single largest local newspaper, according to Wikipedia — and each month more than 30 million people visit the Times’ web site. The New York Times best-seller list has always been considered a definitive record of the best-selling books in the country.

And now that definitive list…is including ebooks.