Today’s Question, courtesy of the Boston Bibliophile: What’s the most popular book in your library? Have you read it? What did you think? How many users have it? What’s the most popular book you don’t have? How does a book’s popularity figure into your decisions about what to read?
Let’s see… the most popular book on LT that I own is “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien. (I actually have multiple copies! Lol) I have indeed read it. The first time was back in fifth grade when a classmate’s parent came in. Honestly, I found it boring to have somebody else read it. Once I read it on my own in high school I enjoyed it a lot more. Tolkien certainly had a way with words, and I’m sure his work will never be forgotten. Looks like 21,361 people have it.
The most popular book that I don’t have is “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”. The only reason I don’t own it is because my mom does. She has all of them, so I’ve just borrowed her copies. At some point I’m sure I’ll grab my own set 🙂 Aside from the Harry Potter books, the most popular book I don’t own is “The Da Vinci Code” (with 23,305 users listing it). I haven’t read it, although I’ve been meaning to. I saw the movie with my friend, and found it interesting enough. Lol, my friend kept going on and on about the things in the book that were different from the movie, and the fact that Tom Hanks was chose to be the main character. So I’ll read it sooner or later!
A book’s popularity doesn’t really mean all that much to me. I see the stats on LT, but I’ve never said “Hey, so many people list that book. I have to pick it up.” I usually look for things that are recommended if I liked a certain book, which is how I’ve discovered many of my favorites. And, although I know people have mixed views about amazon, I check out the reviews there. If there are a lot of negative reviews for a book, I won’t buy it full price. If I still think it looks interesting, I try to pick up a used copy.
While we’re talking about popularity, here are the books that I share with only one other user on LT:
-“Crosstown”
-“Prentice Hall Literature the American Experience”
-“The Romance of Alexander the King”
-“The Quest for the Tomb of Alexander the Great”
-“The Concise Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations”
-“Filmadelphia: A Celebration of a City’s Movies”
-“Standing Fast, Battles of a Champion”
-“Face to Face with Michelle Akers”
-“Marco Paul’s travels and adventures in the pursuit of knowledge: On the erie Canal”
-“Merrill pre-calculus mathematics”
-“The reign of the Great Elector”
-“Roxana”
-“Student Viewers Handbook Vol 2 fuw Destinos”
-“The Brief Prose Reader: Essays for Thinking, Reading, and Writing”
How many do you share with only one user? Are there any books that you alone own, and no others list on LT?
ATTENTION: Seen my latest post? It’s my review of “The Triumph of Deborah” and interview with the author. Did I mention the giveaway? Check it out here!
Missed the post before this one? It was REVIEW: “THE NEW YORKERS” BY CATHLEEN SCHINE.
awww… you stole my next week’s question! 😉
Lol omg did I? Sorry about that! I just figured the two went hand in hand 🙂
Fascinating way to turn the question. I think something like this ought to be next Tuesdays question. What’s the least common book you own? I have 9 books that I share with only one other LTer. I am actually the only person in all of LT to have a copy of “The Wild Bunch” by Peter Dawson. I had no idea. It’s one of those little pulp fiction, dime store novels. Kool, eh?
Hehe. I did the same thing! I hope she still uses the question for next week I want to hear what everyone says. I actually share a lot of books (26) with one other person, sometimes multiple books with just that person. They are mostly zines, and self publications. Also because of all the manually entered comics and zines I’ve entered I have a lot that are just me.
I have a copy of the french graphic novel Ariol (it’s great btw) and a children’s book in German in my library that no one else has. I only have these up because they are signed.
I have 9 books that I share with only one other, and I’ve noticed quite a few that I appear to be the only one with a copy. I hope this is the question for next week’s TT – it’s another fun thing to research!
thekoolaidmom- wow nine books with one person? The most I share with another is two 🙂
Alea- I hope so too! 26 with one person? Cool.
Lenore- I’s so odd to own something that nobody else has listed…. So many people out there, and so many books, well I guess it was bound to happen.
Elizabeth- Def! Lol, I wish I was the only one who owned a book on LT… sadly all my books are owned by at least one other.
I have never really considered looking at the stats to see which books are top rated in regards to my LT account (until this question came up anyway), but I do like to check out how many books I share with only one user.