Amazon's Best Books of 2007

At this time of year, traditional material for regular nonfiction writers are either "Top or Best ..." or "Resolutions". I try to live just one day at a time, instead of proclaiming annual resolutions . If I am in a change process, that's about as long as I can focus or handle. I do, however, believe in setting goals and offered a system for reaching them last month.

I wasn't going to give in to the "tops" tug until I ran across this page at Amazon: Amazon.com: Best of 2007: Books. It is most handy because in addition to the editors' top picks (with no explanation of the selection process), Amazon lists Customer Favorites, the "100 topselling books on Amazon.com during 2007. (Ranked according to customer orders through October. Only books published for the first time in 2007 are eligible.)" At last, a measure with a metric rather than whimsical evanescent criteria. "Top selling" I can understand, even if Amazon has contracted the words into one. There's still time for you to vote on that page for your favorite from among the top 25 best sellers of the year.

Back on the main page of Best Books of 2007, bonuses are the breakdowns of Customer Favorites into 30 "top ten" categories, (find the list in the right column). That's enough sections to enable market research for anyone considering writing a book. What's more, you can also study similar rankings for the last sevan years! (See box at the bottom of the left column.)