Reflection 1

I feel like the fact that a book is or is not on the bestsellers list should not be a defining factor for whether or not you decide to read it. All you can truly learn for sure from a book’s position on the bestseller list is how many more or less copies of it were sold than the next book on the list. There are so many other factors. Different people have different reasons to read books. A heavy romance novel may only attract a large fan base because there are so many angsty teens and lonely middle age females in the world. A science fiction murder mystery may get a big following because of how many nerdy budding psychopaths our society has grown. 

Another factor to consider is depth. There are several ways someone can react to how "smart" a book is. Someone may not understand it and be honest, or they might pull an emperor's new cloak and cast a vote for it so that they don't look foolish. Others may be able to understand a more highly intellectual book, and enjoy it, or they may feel it’s below them. Someone may have bought the book, giving it another tick for the list, but then lost interest before finishing it.

Finally, product placement is a big deal. A book’s sales can be affected by where and when it is released or promoted. For example; The Hobbit was originally released in 1937. The hype has had time to die down. I would bet the ranch that sales for the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and other Tolkein books that pique people’s interest, will go up quite a bit a few months before and after The Hobbit’s 2012 release later this month. Another example is biographies. Few would’ve spent 30 dollars to read Steve Jobs’ life story a decade ago. When it was released shortly after he died, however, it became a bestseller.

Since an appropriate release date for a book could be more of a factor for it’s place on the list than the quality and depth of the text, I feel that the mere fact a book is on the bestsellers list does not automatically mean that it’s a good book.