The New York Times Best Seller List is a weekly chart in The New York Times newspaper that keeps track of the best-selling books of the week. It appears in the Sunday New York Times in the Book Review Section and began on April 9, 1942 under the title, "The Best Selling Books, Here and Everywhere". The first book to top the list was The Last Time I Saw Paris by Elliot Paul. The New York Times is a newspaper published in New York City by Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. ... A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on a list of top-sellers. ... April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). ... This article is about the year. ... Elliot Harold Paul (February 10, 1891-April 7, 1958), was an American journalist and author. ...

Unlike some subsequent lists of best sellers, The New York Times list is not based upon total sales figures, but instead upon surveys of a selected sample of retail booksellers.

The list is divided into Fiction and Non-Fiction sections, which each contains fifteen titles. The New York Times has created the image among some readers that a successful book is only truly successful if it makes an appearance on this list. Other readers consider a best seller to be a lower form of literature, because it must pander to the lowest common denominator. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. The New York Times, in its defense, maintains that the list is merely a list, compiled from sales figures of literally best-selling books. In mathematics, the lowest common denominator or least common denominator (abbreviated LCD) is the least common multiple of the denominators of a set of vulgar fractions. ...

There have been accusations of some books being marketed in a manner designed to place them on the best seller list, so as to boost exposure of the book to a wider audience of potential buyers. Particularly egregious examples include the works by L. Ron Hubbard, Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth. An official Church of Scientology portrait of L. Ron Hubbard, circa 1970 Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard, was a prolific American author and founder of the controversial Church of Scientology. ... Cover of the novel Battlefield Earth intended to promote the movie Battlefield Earth is the name of both a science fiction novel written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and a film adaptation of the novel produced by and starring John Travolta. ... Cover of Mission Earth volume 1: The Invaders Plan Mission Earth is a ten-volume science fiction novel by L. Ron Hubbard, more famous as the founder of the Church of Scientology. ...

Similarly, some books are flagged with an obelus (†) indicating that a significant number of bulk orders had been received by retail bookstores. Since it is normally more economical to place bulk orders for classroom or resale use through wholesalers or publishers, this might indicate that the purchases were made to increase a book's placement in the best seller list. A dagger (†, †, U+2020) is a typographical symbol or glyph. ...

In 2001, a separate section of the best seller list was created to track the sale of children's books. Critics of The New York Times best seller lists claim that the children's book list was created especially so that the Harry Potter book series, which dominated the list for over two years, could be moved to a separate section and other titles allowed to appear on the list. 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... This article is about the Harry Potter series. ...

See also

• List of bestselling novels in the United States
• Bestseller

This is a list of bestselling novels in the United States, as determined by the New York Times. ... A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on a list of top-sellers. ...

External links

• The New York Times Best Seller List (current)
• Previous bestsellers

Further reading

• John Bear, The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times bestsellers since the first list, 50 years ago, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1992