Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ―
What’s the best selling fiction book of all time? According to authority.pub, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities Is the best-selling fiction book of all time. Were you thinking that can’t possibly be true because you think that Harry Potter must be the best-selling fiction book of all time? That’s a fair question.The difference is that Harry Potter is a series of books. So yes, overall, as a collected work, the series reigns as the best-selling fiction series of all time. However, Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, that was published in 1869, sold more than 200 million copies and remains the best-selling fiction novel to date. And then there’s this: Even though Harry Potter is one of the most-read fiction book series of all time, J. K. Rowling’s Wizarding World book series also ranks among the most banned books in the United States.
Do You Have a TBR Stack?
TBR is an acronym that stands for to be read and many people use it to refer to is as their reading list. It’s all the rage among the many bibliophiles that populate social media, especially TikTok. In practice, it usually means there’s a stack of books that you bought and haven’t read yet and for some Instagrammers, they never seem to get a “round tuit.” I usually have a small stack of books that are waiting to be read but it never seems as tall a stack as some of my fellow bibliophiles on social media. Here a look at my current list of TBR books…
Upcoming Reads aka TBR
The upcoming book I’m most excited about reading is
Another book I’m looking forward to reading is the latest gift book from Mary’s Book-of-the-Month club,
And for those who have been wondering what my next book about cars will be, it’s Porsche 911: 60 Years by Randy Leffingwell. Right now I don’t know much about this—what appears to be a—coffee table book but it’s from the same publisher that produced the incredible Porsche 356: 75th Anniversary so it should be an informative read.
And to fill in between each of these reads, as a palette cleaner, if you will, I just ordered a stack of used Nero Wolfe paperbacks that include Gambit, The Red Box, Curtains, The Second Confession and Plot it Yourself. It’s been a while since I cuddled up in front of the fireplace with Archie and Nero and I cant wait to dive into these books. As I write this, I just finished reading Gambit and all you chess players have probably already figured out that the book is about chess and you’ll be right! The book was first published by the Viking Press in 1962 and Nero and Archie investigate a murder that was caused by the victim drinking poisoned Hot Chocolate while playing against ten opponents simultaneously!. Because of our recent spell of cold weather, I’ve been enjoying a cup of Hot Chocolate myself and found this particular crime interesting and so is this book.
From the local Library: If you’ve been reading these posts for a while you know I like books about history. And books of historical mysteries, fiction or non fiction are my favorites. But as far as interesting books about history it would be hard to beat these two: The first is A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder” and, so far anyway, is giving of the vibes of Dana’s Also coming from the library is
Look for reviews on many/some/all of the featured books in upcoming posts.
Trivia: Rex Stout always likes to include a few unusual words in his novels, typically spoken by Nero Wolfe. In Gambit, Wolfe, at one time, says the word “contemned.” I had to look that one up; it means “treat or regard with contempt. I may have figured it out, but you never know when reading one of Stout’s novels.
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