[Englecturers] January newsletter - Goodreads announces the most popular books of 2007!

[GoodReads]

Englecturers,

Here's our monthly newsletter from Goodreads--giving you the latest and greatest in our quest to connect people through reading!



Best of 2007 | Quote Widget | New Features | Featured Authors | Story of the Month 


Best of 2007

Goodreads is proud to announce the most popular books of 2007!

It seems no year can escape us without the usual scrum of "Best of" lists. Bestsellers, best films, best bumper stickers (although we didn’t complain when Time Magazine named Goodreads the #5 best website of 2007). So why is our list better than any other? Goodreads can tell you what people are reading now, which is very different from what is selling. 

The bestsellers of 2007 must compete against books written decades or even centuries ago. On our most-read Poetry shelf, titles span nearly 3000 years, from The Odyssey and The Iliad, through The Canterbury Tales, and all the way to Where the Sidewalk Ends. Not surprisingly, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows reigns supreme on our most-read Fiction list, but it shares that honor with Catcher in the Rye, written more than 50 years ago. 

most read fiction books
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
2. The Kite Runner
3. A Thousand Splendid Suns
4. To Kill a Mockingbird
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
6. The Catcher in the Rye
7. Middlesex
8. The Da Vinci Code
9. Water for Elephants
10.The Great Gatsby

most read nonfiction books
1. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
2. The Glass Castle: A Memoir
3. Me Talk Pretty One Day
4. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
5. Running with Scissors: A Memoir
6. Freakonomics Rev Ed: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
7. Into the Wild
8. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
9. The Omnivore's Dilemma
10.The Year of Magical Thinking
  
With now more than 750,000 members (and growing every day), Goodreads users have now added more than 10 million books to their shelves. Our fiction and non-fiction lists are just the beginning -- check out our other categories (children's, clasics, history, mystery, philosophy, poetry, romance, and sci-fi) here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/most_read?country=US&duration=a


New quote widget

Groucho is always good for a laugh, but maybe you prefer rhymes from Dr. Seuss, wit from Douglas Adams, inspiration from Eleanor Roosevelt, or wisdom from Mahatma Gandhi? Show off your favorite quotes on your blog or personal website with the new Goodreads quote widget! Although our Quotes feature is barely a month old, members have already added more than 14,000 quotes. If you don't see your favorite, adding it to your profile is a snap.
  
Install the quotes widget today: http://www.goodreads.com/review/widgets


New features

Goodreads is getting better every day! We are constantly working to improve and expand the site, and we welcome your suggestions -- tell us what you want by visiting the Goodreads Feedback Group. 

Read a book – find a discussion group
Craving some quality literary discussion? Or maybe you have a burning question about that unexpected plot twist? Now you can find discussion groups more easily! Simply browse your favorite books and click on any book title to see which groups have added it to their shelf. The Subversives added Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead to their shelf. What’s on yours?

Spoiler alert!
Don’t hold back! Analyze your favorite character’s final demise or rip that closing scene to shreds -- just be sure to click the spoiler alert box when you save your review. This was a top-requested feature from our users!

Secret notes – Sshh! For your eyes only!
Want to remember the page number of that steamy love scene? Or maybe you always forget who you loan your books to? No problem, write yourself a private note. You can view these secret messages, but no one else can!

Book recommendations
Another new field to help you keep track of who recommended what. We’ll be keeping track too, and hopefully, once we get enough data, we'll be able to show really cool stats about the best recommenders and chains of recommendations (Otis recommended it to Jessica, who recommended it to Tim, who recommended it to... you get the idea).

New data for every book
Our Goodreads Librarians are continually improving our catalog. Now they can add details such as names of characters in the book, literary awards, setting (country & postal code), and primary language.

Bebo application
Our Bebo app is all polished off and even better than before. 
Show off your favorite books and bookshelves, swap recs with friends and let everyone know what's occupying your mind these days. The coolest part? You can compare books on Bebo with your Facebook or Goodreads friends.


Featured authors

Here’s an exciting sampling of new authors on Goodreads! You'll never guess what is on their bookshelves!

Arthur Bradford, winner of the O. Henry Award, has won rave reviews for Dogwalker: Stories.  Dave Eggers summed it up: "If you don't like Arthur's stories, you are not my friend."
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/105714.Dogwalker_Stories

Matthea Harvey, a Brooklynite who teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College, has recently published her third book of poetry, Modern Life.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/356529.Modern_Life_Poems

Tim O'Reilly has no doubt taught you a thing or two about web 2.0; he is founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, the leading computer book publisher, and author of numerous books, including UNIX Power Tools.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/172314.UNIX_Power_Tools

Bill Walsh, chief copy editor for national news at the Washington Post, proves that grammar can be fun with Lapsing Into a Comma : A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--and How to Avoid Them.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/379288.Lapsing_Into_a_Comma_A_Curmudgeon_s_Guide_to_the_Many_Things_That_Can_Go_Wrong_in_Print_and_How_to_Avoid_Them      


Story of the month
 by Meaghan Good
			
			
      The Highway Overpass

      It was one of those hot airless days where spring is long behind you and winter is a myth. There was little traffic on the normally busy interstate; everyone was draped over their air conditioners, or splashing at the beach. The trooper looked around, then pulled his car up next to the divider. He could park for a few minutes. No one was coming.
      
      He got out of the car, quietly shut the door, and looked at her. She wasn’t moving. Safe to approach? He wasn’t sure.
      
      “Hey,” he said.
      
      She must have heard him, but she didn’t turn around. She didn’t move at all. She leaned against the concrete barrier as if she’d been sculpted there, looking towards the shimmering road below, with its few semis inching along its length like caterpillars. Down and down and down.
      
      “Hey,” the trooper said again. “Hey…ma’am? Ma’am?” He took a few tentative steps towards the barrier, one hand on his gun, not taking his eyes off of her.
      
      She turned at last and jumped when she saw him. He stopped immediately, not wanting to scare her any more than he had to.
      
      “Y-yes?”
      
      “Is everything all right?”
      
      She looked around at the nothingness and unstuck herself from the barrier, straightening up, and stood at respectful attention. “Doesn’t it look so?”
      
      “Well, frankly, no.” Another step forward. “I had a 10-107 on the radio. A truck driver called it in,” the trooper said, still staring hard at her. She was pretty, or would have been if she didn’t have so many holes in her. Ears, nose, eyebrow, upper lip. No jewelry at all, though—just the piercings, raw and empty...

Read the rest of The Highway Overpass: http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/5738.The_Highway_Overpass

	

Happy 2008!

-- The Goodreads Team
	

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