Periodically I go on binges where I browse the Kindle bestsellers list and download most of the top 100 free books, more or less indiscriminately, without consideration for quality. I mean, what the hell, it's free and my Kindle 2 still has over 1.2GB of free storage (out of 1.4GB user space). Even the worst piece of formulaic pulp trash might be funny in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way; or at least there may be some anthropological interest (oh, so this is what women fantasize about?). Most of the stuff goes totally unread of course — I don't have time to even glance at a tenth of it — but I suppose I like having the option.
Anyway, it's interesting to note that as of January 2011, the top 100 free Kindle ebooks list consists of the following:
Count | Type | Example | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
50 | Gutenberg ebooks | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Kindle conversions of public domain etexts from Project Gutenberg; mostly classics. |
7 | Games | Every Word | IMO Amazon should segregate these in their own section. |
5 | Thriller/Mystery | The Perfect Woman | Mostly in the gruesome-crimes subgenre, not the sleuthing subgenre. |
8 | Erotica/Romance | Rough Cut | Romance readers might claim that these are two categories but I defy you to draw the line among these titles. |
2 | ChickLit | Stuck in the Middle (Sister-to-Sister Book 1) | Apologies for the derogatory label but what do you want me to do with a cover and title like that? |
11 | Christian Fiction | Fools Rush In (Weddings By Bella, Book 1) | Often disguises itself quite stealthily as other genre fiction. |
6 | Other Fantasy | Don't Die, Dragonfly | Mostly spirits-and-vampires stuff, not Heroic Medieval Fantasy Product. |
8 | Alleged Nonfiction | The Winners Manual | Includes many crappy cookbooks and the Bible. |
3 | Other Fiction | The Stolen Crown | Arguably the bravest authors here, as non-series non-genre fiction has the least "author stickiness" of any fiction. Which isn't to say the writing's any good necessarily. |
Ich weib nicht,das ende.
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