‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ Top Seller So Far in 2019: Critical Linking, July 14, 2019

Critical Linking is a daily roundup of the most interesting bookish links from around the web.

Shop summer reading favorites and Book Riot’s best books of the year so far in our Amazon storefront.

“Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was the top-selling print book in the first half of 2019 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The novel, published by Putnam in August 2018, sold over 907,000 copies in 2019 and more than 1.1 million copies since its release.”

A peek at the best selling books of the year so far. This is fascinating. 

“There is kind of an oversimplified truth in the statement. The printed word (and the printed Bible, at that) did, in large part, determine the course of European history, which, through empire, determined the course of global events after the “Gutenberg revolution.” But there is another story of print entirely independent of book history in Europe, one that also determined world history with the preservation of Buddhist, Chinese dynastic, and Islamic texts. And one that begins “before Johannes Gutenberg was even born,” Newman points out.”

This is cool on so many levels. 

“So, if you’ve recently thought about, and then against, picking up one of those books you really had intended to read but didn’t, why not give audiobooks a go? Ahead, you can find a list of those books you should have read already which actually, may work much better when they’re read out loud to you instead.”

A nice assortment of books you “should” read that work great in audio format.