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<b>Bonhams:</b> MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938. Autograph Manuscript, 2 pp, [Petersburg,] January 1913, entitled

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What's Atop BookFinder's Top Ten This Year? - By Michael Stillman Jessica Simpson joins Madonna this year as one of BookFinder's favorite authors. By Michael Stillman BookFinder has issued its annual report of Top Ten Lists of the most searched for books, and as always, they are a curious mix of the popular and the hard-to-find. There aren't a lot of classic works here, and some might not unfairly be labeled "trash," but at least they are books, which places them a step up the ladder from most television fare or what you find on YouTube. So be thankful that some people still buy printed words and images. The BookFinder lists are substantially different from those put out by AbeBooks. BookFinder searches many listing sites, which explains why it receives more searches for obscure or hard-to-find items, while Abe's lists are more inhabited with currently popular and more common works. The first of BookFinder's ten categories provides the ultimate example. Number 1 in Arts and Music, for the sixth straight year, is Madonna's Sex, but due to its rarity, it is only number 362,822 in Amazon's sales rank. This 1992 book of "artistic" photographs, of more than passing prurient interest, has long been hard to obtain, so people keep searching everywhere. Madonna remains an icon after all these years. Runner up in this category is a new entry, Currier and Ives, by Harry T. Peters. I'm not familiar with this book. Do you suppose people misconstrued Harry Peters for Harry Potter? Under biography, Johnny Cash has slipped a bit from number 1 to 3, with Tim Reiterman's Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People now at the top. I like Johnny Cash better than Jim Jones (I like just about anybody better than Jim Jones), but Jones is certainly the more sensational. A biography of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter now appears as runner up (how long ago did Bob Dylan sing Carter's biography?), while biographies of westerner Charles Russell and decathlete Bob Richards join repeat favorite Universalist Minister Daniel Bragg Clayton near the top. Rob White's The Lion's Paw is once again the most searched for children's book. None of Madonna's children's books made the list. People evidently prefer her as a visual artist to a written one. Makes sense. The lack of anything from Dr. Seuss ought to be investigated. Here is a trivial factoid: the longest title in this category is five words, with seven containing three or fewer. Seven of the ten biographies contain more than five words in their title. Maybe if we all wrote as if we were writing for children, we would learn how to be more succinct and to the point. The addition of sports to the Crafts, Hobbies and How-To category moves last year's Popular Science leader, Steve Belichick's Football Scouting Methods, to the leader in Crafts, etc. This has the odd effect of placing the son of the New England Patriot's coach in a list filled with knitting books. Another title in there is recently divorced Jessica Simpson's I Do: Achieving Your Dream Wedding. Perhaps picking the right man should also be a factor. I'm not sure whether Herman Edward Davis' The American Wild Turkey is about the animal or the whiskey.
What's Atop BookFinder's Top Ten This Year? - By Michael Stillman BookFinder's Top Ten is a different sort of list. The removal of Belichick's book from the Popular Science and Technology category opened up room for John. F. Straubel's One Way Up to debut at the top. Number 2, up from 6 a year ago, is Murmurs of the Earth by the ever-popular Carl Sagan. Last year's number 1 in Fiction and Literature, Sisters, by Lynne Cheney, has completely disappeared from this year's list. If only we could make her husband disappear so quickly. On top now is Once a Runner, by John L. Parker, Jr., while Nora Roberts inches one spot closer to the top, from 3 to 2, for Promise Me Tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow she will reach the promised number 1. What important event is worthy of leading the list of books on history? Last year it was the Civil War. This year, it is Flash in the Pan: Life and Death of an American Restaurant. It is the story of a Manhattan restaurant that closed a year after it opened. What is historically important to readers this year is a bit less momentous than what was a year ago. Runner-up is The Politicos, 1865-1896, by Matthew Josephson. Amazon ranks this one a more modest 1,418,795. This book describes the period that brought us Presidents Andrew Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. Giants all. For Mysteries and Thrillers, number 1 is The Book of Bond, by Kingley Amis as William "Bill" Tanner. Also in the top ten are Donald E. Westlake as Richard Stark and John Dickson Carr as Carter Dickson. Is there something about this genre that makes people embarrassed to use their real names? Atop Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror once again is Rage, by Stephen King, this one also written pseudonymously, and attributed to "Richard Bachman." Finally, there is the top ten of Society and Culture, a subject I know nothing about. At the top is a title that reeks of society and culture, Our Harvard, edited by Jeffrey Lant. Perhaps the old ‘60s Hahvahd grads have gathered around the fireplace to sing from number 9, the Fireside Book of Folk Songs. We are all veterans of the Folksong Army. You may read all of BookFinder's Top Ten Lists at http://report.bookfinder.com/2007/.

What's Atop BookFinder's Top Ten This Year?

- By Michael Stillman

Jessica Simpson joins Madonna this year as one of BookFinder's favorite authors.

By Michael Stillman

BookFinder has issued its annual report of Top Ten Lists of the most searched for books, and as always, they are a curious mix of the popular and the hard-to-find. There aren't a lot of classic works here, and some might not unfairly be labeled "trash," but at least they are books, which places them a step up the ladder from most television fare or what you find on YouTube. So be thankful that some people still buy printed words and images.

The BookFinder lists are substantially different from those put out by AbeBooks. BookFinder searches many listing sites, which explains why it receives more searches for obscure or hard-to-find items, while Abe's lists are more inhabited with currently popular and more common works. The first of BookFinder's ten categories provides the ultimate example. Number 1 in Arts and Music, for the sixth straight year, is Madonna's Sex, but due to its rarity, it is only number 362,822 in Amazon's sales rank. This 1992 book of "artistic" photographs, of more than passing prurient interest, has long been hard to obtain, so people keep searching everywhere. Madonna remains an icon after all these years. Runner up in this category is a new entry, Currier and Ives, by Harry T. Peters. I'm not familiar with this book. Do you suppose people misconstrued Harry Peters for Harry Potter?

Under biography, Johnny Cash has slipped a bit from number 1 to 3, with Tim Reiterman's Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People now at the top. I like Johnny Cash better than Jim Jones (I like just about anybody better than Jim Jones), but Jones is certainly the more sensational. A biography of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter now appears as runner up (how long ago did Bob Dylan sing Carter's biography?), while biographies of westerner Charles Russell and decathlete Bob Richards join repeat favorite Universalist Minister Daniel Bragg Clayton near the top.

Rob White's The Lion's Paw is once again the most searched for children's book. None of Madonna's children's books made the list. People evidently prefer her as a visual artist to a written one. Makes sense. The lack of anything from Dr. Seuss ought to be investigated. Here is a trivial factoid: the longest title in this category is five words, with seven containing three or fewer. Seven of the ten biographies contain more than five words in their title. Maybe if we all wrote as if we were writing for children, we would learn how to be more succinct and to the point.

The addition of sports to the Crafts, Hobbies and How-To category moves last year's Popular Science leader, Steve Belichick's Football Scouting Methods, to the leader in Crafts, etc. This has the odd effect of placing the son of the New England Patriot's coach in a list filled with knitting books. Another title in there is recently divorced Jessica Simpson's I Do: Achieving Your Dream Wedding. Perhaps picking the right man should also be a factor. I'm not sure whether Herman Edward Davis' The American Wild Turkey is about the animal or the whiskey.

What's Atop BookFinder's Top Ten This Year?

- By Michael Stillman

BookFinder's Top Ten is a different sort of list.

The removal of Belichick's book from the Popular Science and Technology category opened up room for John. F. Straubel's One Way Up to debut at the top. Number 2, up from 6 a year ago, is Murmurs of the Earth by the ever-popular Carl Sagan.

Last year's number 1 in Fiction and Literature, Sisters, by Lynne Cheney, has completely disappeared from this year's list. If only we could make her husband disappear so quickly. On top now is Once a Runner, by John L. Parker, Jr., while Nora Roberts inches one spot closer to the top, from 3 to 2, for Promise Me Tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow she will reach the promised number 1.

What important event is worthy of leading the list of books on history? Last year it was the Civil War. This year, it is Flash in the Pan: Life and Death of an American Restaurant. It is the story of a Manhattan restaurant that closed a year after it opened. What is historically important to readers this year is a bit less momentous than what was a year ago. Runner-up is The Politicos, 1865-1896, by Matthew Josephson. Amazon ranks this one a more modest 1,418,795. This book describes the period that brought us Presidents Andrew Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. Giants all.

For Mysteries and Thrillers, number 1 is The Book of Bond, by Kingley Amis as William "Bill" Tanner. Also in the top ten are Donald E. Westlake as Richard Stark and John Dickson Carr as Carter Dickson. Is there something about this genre that makes people embarrassed to use their real names? Atop Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror once again is Rage, by Stephen King, this one also written pseudonymously, and attributed to "Richard Bachman."

Finally, there is the top ten of Society and Culture, a subject I know nothing about. At the top is a title that reeks of society and culture, Our Harvard, edited by Jeffrey Lant. Perhaps the old ‘60s Hahvahd grads have gathered around the fireplace to sing from number 9, the Fireside Book of Folk Songs. We are all veterans of the Folksong Army.

You may read all of BookFinder's Top Ten Lists at http://report.bookfinder.com/2007/.