Fifty Shades of Grey Shocks as Top Amazon Book of the Year

No really, of course. Nobody should be surprised that an entry in the popular trilogy took Amazon’s yearly crown, as it was a pretty big year for masturbatory fiction. It was actually book three...
Fifty Shades of Grey Shocks as Top Amazon Book of the Year
Written by Josh Wolford
  • No really, of course. Nobody should be surprised that an entry in the popular trilogy took Amazon’s yearly crown, as it was a pretty big year for masturbatory fiction.

    It was actually book three (Fifty Shades Freed) that grabbed the top spot. That’s because the first two in series, not published in 2012, couldn’t be included in the list. The E.L. James novel was followed by Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl: A Novel” and the 3-volume boxed set of the Fifty Shades series. The rest of the top ten list, which take into account print and Kindle versions, is as follows:

    “Bared to You: A Crossfire Novel” by Sylvia Day; “No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden” by Mark Owen; “The Marriage Bargain (Marriage to a Billionaire)” by Jennifer Probst; “Reflected in You: A Crossfire Novel” by Sylvia Day; “The Racketeer” by John Grisham; “Defending Jacob: A Novel” by William Landay; “The Innocent” by David Baldacci.

    “This was truly the year of the billionaire bad boy in romance—Amazon readers just couldn’t get enough of the genre,” said Sara Nelson, Editorial Director of Books and Kindle at Amazon. “While E. L. James published the first two books in her Fifty Shades trilogy in 2011, so they aren’t eligible for our 2012 list, the series really took off this year and propelled the third installment and the omnibus edition onto our top 10 list. It’s also interesting to note that four of the five contemporary romance titles in the top 10 list, including the Fifty Shades trilogy, were originally independently published and went on to become huge best sellers.”

    When it comes to kids & teens books, a Fifty Shades book didn’t win (luckily). What did claim the top overall spot was “The Mark of Athena,” book three in Rick Riordan’s “Heroes of Olympus” series. Here’s the rest of that top ten list, in order:

    The Third Wheel (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 7)” by Jeff Kinney; “Insurgent (Divergent)” by Veronica Roth; “The Serpent’s Shadow (The Kane Chronicles, Book 3)” by Rick Riordan; “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green; “City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments)” by Cassandra Clare; “While it Lasts” by Abbi Glines; “The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies, Book 3)” by Pittacus Lore; “Wonder” by R. J. Palacio; “Nevermore: The Final Maximum Ride Adventure (Book 8)” by James Patterson.

    Amazon has the whole top-100 lists for both print and Kindle, adult and kids available on their Best Books 2012 page.

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