In January, our buyers got their heads together and came up with a very, very long list of what they considered to be ABC’s most successful books of the decade. Wrestling that list down to fewer than a gazillion titles required more objectivity than can reasonably be expected from people who are passionate about books, but we got there in the end. What makes a book worthy of the list? First: it had to be originally published between December 1999 and December 2009. Second: It should be a bestseller, not just originally, but currently too. And lastly: it had to be a book that we would personally recommend to you, our customer. How many of these books have you read?

BEST FICTION TITLE OF THE DECADE: The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night Time by Mark Haddon

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger’s, a form of autism.

He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colors yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbor’s dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down. Almost universally loved and recommended by ABC employees, this book is deceptively simple, but completely memorable. And hilarious too!

BEST NON-FICTION TITLE OF THE DECADE: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point is that magical moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.

Gladwell reveals how easy it is to cause group behavior to tip in a desirable direction by making small changes in our immediate environment: Removing graffiti in the New York subway caused a dramatic reduction in crime; a specific hip group of teenagers wore Hush Puppies and suddenly sparked a national craze. The Tipping Point contains a profoundly hopeful idea that people will embrace for its sense and simplicity: one imaginative person, applying a well-placed lever, can move the world.

This is a book that should be read by everyone in business, politics, marketing, advertising, and anyone interested in trends, fashion, fads, policy making, and human behavior. In other words, all of us.

And now, in no particular order, all the other title that we think were ABC’s Best Books of The Decade. (Please note that sub-categories are fairly arbitrary and completely subjective.  :-))

FICTION

Fiction for Everyone

• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night Time by Mark Haddon
• Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
• The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
• The Book of Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley
• The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
• The Coffee Trader by David Liss
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Slightly More Demanding  Fiction

• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
• No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories by Miranda July
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
• The Human Stain by Philip Roth
• Netherland by Joseph O’Neill
• Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• Vernon God Little by D.B.C.  Pierre
• Atonement by Ian McEwan
• Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Juvenile Fiction

• The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

NON-FICTION

Biography

• Postsecret by Frank Warren
• The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
• Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
• The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
• The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Help Yourself

• Loving What Is by Byron Katie
• What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson
• The Game by Neil Strauss
• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
• He’s Just Not That into You by Behrendt and Tuccillo

How The World Works

• Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt
• The Tipping Point by Macolm Gladwell
• No Logo by Naomi Klein
• The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
• The Island At The Center Of The World by Russell Shorto
• The World is Flat: The Globalized World in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman
• Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things by Michael Braungart and William McDonough

Feed Your Senses

• Monkey Portraits by Jill Greenberg
• Silver Spoon by Phaidon Press
• Wall and Piece by Bansky
• Fresh Fruits by Shoichi Aoki

Tags: Best Books ofThe Decade, lists, recommendations

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Recommendations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.