Choosing books from best-seller lists

Choosing books from the best-sellers lists are easy with our tips on where to look and how to find out more about them.

Best-seller lists

Overview Best-seller lists fall into two categories of all books; those put together from book shop sales and those based on internet sales.
They are based on how many of each book are purchased rather than how many are printed. The Sunday Times produces a weekly best-sellers list in their Culture section.
This includes Hardback and Paperback fiction top ten lists from book shop sales as well as General Hardback and Paperback listings. The times listings also have a top five guides and manuals section for informational and reference books. These details are taken from lists prepared by The Bookseller.
The Bookseller uses data that is provided through Nielsen Bookscan, which gives the estimated sales of books over a seven day period.
The Culture section and the Times Literary Supplement also have reviews of these books to help you choose what to read.
Websites Websites such as Amazon.co.uk also have best-seller lists on all their different categories of books. These lists are generated through the online sales of books and are updated regularly.
You can read more about the book under the book’s description and readers reviews are posted so you can check out what other people have thought about the book before trying it yourself. Amazon also has a ‘look inside’ function for some of its titles so you can read a page or two before deciding to purchase.

American and worldwide lists

American and worldwide For books published in America, the New York Times best-seller lists are the most popular. You can access these on their website Nytimes.com.
It tracks independent and national book store sales.They list a range of categories including e-books and children's as well as having NY times archives. The American website, Amazon.com books, tracks only their internet sales so there are often differences between the book seller lists and online bookstores. Lists change weekly using this kind of data but there are also lists of the best selling books overall and worldwide. For instance, Wikipedia.com has lists of books that have sold more than 100 million copies. These include The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Some of the books have online reviews that you can select for more information.
Final word
Look at the lists, but always make sure that a book is to your liking before you buy it. Read the reviews before you make a decision to purchase.