Amazon announces best-selling books of 2013
By Jennifer Osieczanek
Author Dan Brown is back at the top of Amazon’s annual best-seller list as Inferno was named the website’s top-selling book of 2013 on Monday.
Brown’s The Da Vinci Code was the No. 1-seller in 2004 and The Lost Symbol earned the same distinction in 2009.
Inferno takes Brown’s Harvard professor Robert Langdon back to Italy to solve a riddle based on Dante’s masterpiece to thwart a plot to forever change the world.
Second on the top 20 list was Khaled Hosseini’s And the Mountain Echoed. Robert Galbraith’s The Cuckoo’s Calling, Liane Moriarty’s The Husband’s Secret and Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead rounded out the top five.
The list accounts for first editions that were published in 2013, consider only paid units, and combine print and Kindle editions. Lean In was the only book in the top 20 to sell more print editions than Kindle editions.
“Last year’s best seller list was filled with Fifty Shades and contemporary romance, but in 2013 Mysteries and Thrillers captured readers attention, with 11 of the top 20 books falling in that category,” Sara Nelson, Editorial Director of Books and Kindle at Amazon.com, said in the company’s release.
Amazon also released a top 20 books list for kids and teens. Allegiant, the final book in Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy, took home the top honors in the youth category. Rick Riordan’s The House of Hades was second, followed by Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck. Of note, the same three authors — Rick Riordan, Veronica Roth and Jeff Kinney — also took the top three spots in 2012.
Rush Limbaugh’s Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans was fourth on the list and Never Too Far by Abbi Glines was fifth.
And if you’re searching for a gift, Inferno and Allegiant are the top two “most-wished” for books by Amazon consumers. Also on the most-wished for list: John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and the aforementioned The House of Hades.
Amazon customers can place orders for print editions (and millions of other items) through Tuesday, Dec. 17 with free delivery by Christmas. Amazon Prime members can place orders up until 7 p.m. EST on Saturday, Dec. 21 to receive deliveries by Christmas Eve using free two-day shipping, though cut-off time varies by item.
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