Thank goodness market research for writers and publishers includes keeping up on one’s reading. When family members see us sprawled on the couch, book in hand, we can claim, oops, I mean explain, we are working.
And, in this endeavor, NPR is here to help.
NPR conducted a poll titled “Killer Thrillers” to help you decide what next to read.
Six-hundred nominations were collected. Seventeen-thousand ballots cast.
In the end, there were few surprises. Most of the authors’ names in the list of the top 100 are familiar: Stephen King, Truman Capote, James Patterson, Dan Brown, John Grisham, as are the titles of the books, even when the author’s name may be difficult to recall: Rosemary’s Baby and Fail-Safe for instance.
Below are the top 20. To see the whole list click here.
- 1. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
- 2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
- 3. Kiss the Girls, by James Patterson
- 4. The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum
- 5. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
- 6. The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
- 7. The Shining, by Stephen King
- 8. And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie
- 9. The Hunt tor Red October, by Tom Clancy
- 10. The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- 11. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
- 12. The Stand, by Stephen King
- 13. The Bone Collector, by Jeffery Deaver
- 14. Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton
- 15. Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown
- 16. A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
- 17. The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton
- 18. Mystic River, by Dennis Lehane
- 19. The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth
- 20. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
I find polls like this one often reflect what those polled are currently reading—Stieg Larsson has three in the top 100, Lee Child, four—so I was pleased to see books by Agatha Christie, John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, and Ian Fleming in the ranks.
So, your duty is clear, go out and buy a half dozen of these and hit that couch.
As an aside, Barnes & Noble yesterday said the bookstore chain is on the market. B&N’s stock price has been suffering lately even though, as I understand it, profits haven’t been. One has to wonder, does the management at B & N see a bright future in brick and mortar bookstores in light of the budding popularity of e-readers?
Just a write thought.
