The most popular books of 2014. Book ranking by popularity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Now you can often hear a sarcastic opinion that soon the inhabitants of the Earth will forget how to read. Of course, this is not true. People still read a lot, only these days it is not paper media that rules the ball, but electronic devices. What's the difference though? Yes, the reading format has changed, but the form is not as important as the content. And with the content, I must say, there are no problems - worthy works are published annually, and readers can only track them. But with this, difficulties can arise. Unfortunately, we do not have popular advertising of publications and mass book criticism, so it is sometimes difficult for people to understand which works are worth paying attention to.

Rating of Russia. Fiction

In this review, we will highlight the most popular books of 2014 in our country, so that you have something to focus on when choosing printed materials for reading. Agree that a bad thing is unlikely to become known, because in any case, human rumor will spread information about its quality. That is why we have included in the list of popular books only the most sensational works in the literary world over the past year. They are an excellent choice for those whowonders what to read in his spare time.

1. "50 Shades of Grey"

This scandalous novel, created by the English writer E. L. James, became the undisputed leader in sales in the Russian fiction market last year. The book was published in Russian by the Eksmo publishing house. The work tells the story of the relationship between entrepreneur Christian Gray and university graduate Anastasia Steele, replete with scenes of an erotic nature. The explicit content and sales data, which showed that the lion's share of the buyers were women over the age of thirty, led to the book being dubbed "mom porn" in the press. Also, students and teenage girls made up an impressive part of the audience. Many critics who have written reviews of popular reading books found E. L. James's work rather controversial. But such opinions did not affect sales in any way, and in 2014 "50 shades of gray" were sold out in millions of copies. Such popularity marked the adaptation of the work - on February 13, 2015, a film based on the book is expected to be released.

2. "Russian canary. Zheltukhin"

The second part of our rating is the first part of the family saga written by Dina Rubina. This is a stormy and colorful novel that tells about the history of a diverse family, about the amazing interweaving of destinies through distances and years. Alma-Ata, Odessa and Israel are inextricably linked in the work. We are talking about two genera, united by one small bird, about a young man with a uniquesinging talent and a deaf girl with boundless inner freedom. This is both a gripping detective story and a deep drama about the maestro and his descendants.

3. "Russian canary. Voice"

The third line of the rating is occupied by the second part of Rubina's trilogy - the continuation of the intricate spy-detective plot, consisting of closely intertwined stories of two completely different, but connected by one common secret families from Odessa and Alma-Ata, who have gone through all the vicissitudes of the twentieth century. It is not surprising that the most popular books of 2014 are the novels of Dina Rubina, because her piercing and deep style touches the most delicate spiritual strings.

4. "Resident"

This is a work by Zakhar Prilepin dedicated to Solovki, an archipelago in the White Sea. The book paints a wide canvas with clear traces of the past and reflections of the future, with dozens of heroes - this is a whole life that fits into one autumn. In Solovetsky Lake, as in a mirror, against the backdrop of a dramatic love story, the tragic history of the whole country was reflected with its pain, blood, hatred. The novel "The Abode" weaves majestic nature and human destinies into a ball, where it is no longer possible to distinguish the executioners from the victims. Zakhar Prilepin created a very strong work about the limits of personal human freedom and the degree of physical abilities, which could not go unnoticed, so the novel was included in the rating of "The Most Popular Books of 2014".

5. "Inferno"

Another mystical blockbuster by Dan Brown is on the fifth line of our top 10. Byeprofessional critics who examine popular books for reading look for inaccuracies and factual errors in the author, ordinary readers enthusiastically unravel the mysteries of the past with the protagonist of the novel, art historian Robert Langdon. This time, the historian with a Harvard diploma will have an interesting journey to the Apennine Peninsula, where he will have to immerse himself in the world of the mysterious "Divine Comedy" created by Dante Alighieri. The work will again give readers everything for which they fell in love with Dan Brown's previous popular books: these are codes, symbols, and, of course, a secret, the disclosure of which depends on the fate of all mankind.

6. "The Fault in the Stars"

On the sixth line, in contrast to the heroic mysticism, there is a romantic drama by John Green, which tells about a poignant love story, which nevertheless did not end with a happy ending. The fact that this work was included in the "Most Popular Books of 2014" rating is due to the recent film adaptation, which caused a new round of fame. The plot of the novel is tied to one of the most tragic phenomena of our time - the lives of teenagers with cancer. 17-year-old girl Hazel has been suffering from a severe form of cancer for several years. She miraculously manages to survive, but now she is forever deprived of the ability to breathe on her own. Hazel doesn't go to college, suffers from depression and lives in her own fantasy world. But one day an event happens that completely changes her life - the girl meets Ogostus. In the hearts of young peoplethe first tender feelings are born, and all this happens against the backdrop of the impending sword of Damocles, because cancer almost never recedes irrevocably.

7. "Finger of Fire"

Popular books of 2014 are also represented by a collection of three stories, authored by Boris Akunin, or Grigory Chkhartishvili (this is the real name of the writer). The action of the works takes place in different eras. So, the first story introduces the reader to a Byzantine scout with superpowers, who lived in the ninth century AD, who travels through pagan Russia. The second story tells about a heroine who lived at a time when there was a rivalry between the decaying Byzantium and Kievan Rus. The third story takes the reader to an era when Russia was fragmented into principalities. And, of course, there was love in the works!

8. "Cuckoo Calling"

We all know the popular books of JK Rowling, but "The Call of the Cuckoo" was the first creation of the author, written in the detective genre using the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. This is an amazing story tied to the mysterious death of a model. At first glance, the cause of the girl's death is known - she fell from the balcony, but the intuition tells the former military, and now private detective Cormoran Strike, that everything is not so simple here.

9. "One Hundred Years of Travel"

Tatiana Ustinova's detective story, which tells about the history of the first Russian State Duma against the background of mysterious collisions and love affairs, turned out to be quite specific, so to speak,for an amateur. But there were many such fans, so the work "One Hundred Years of Travel" deserved its place in the rating of "Popular Books of 2014".

10. "To Kill a Mockingbird"

This novel was first published back in 1960, but the excitement around it still does not subside. The work is recognized as one of the best in the twentieth century, its author, American writer Harper Lee, received the Pulitzer Prize for it. The action takes place in Alabama in the 30s of the last century, when the United States was going through difficult times of the Great Depression, exacerbation of interracial and social conflicts. The story is told from the point of view of a girl named Glazastik. The book shows the world through children's eyes, illuminates eternal issues from the position of a sincere and spontaneous child. This work about human freedom and injustice is especially relevant today in view of the aggravation of the problems of violence and xenophobia. This is probably why To Kill a Mockingbird, written more than 50 years ago, was so popular with readers in 2014 and entered the list of Popular Books of the Year.

Non-fiction

According to the ratings of sales in Russian bookstores, among the printed products from the non-fiction series, the leader was “The History of the Russian State. From the origins to the Mongol invasion. Its author is Boris Akunin, already mentioned by us, who has an amazing talent for writing popular scientific books in an easy-to-understand language that is far from academic dryness.

Three works by Paola Volkova, a well-known art historian, from the five-volume series "Bridge over the Abyss" were in demand last year. These popular books are a literary cycle of art history programs, with the third volume of the series dedicated to the topic of children's painting being the most famous.

The practical guide of hereditary doctor Alexander Myasnikov, which gives advice on how to lead a he althy lifestyle, also occupied a leading position in sales. The book was published under the title “How to live longer than 50 years. Private conversation with a doctor about drugs and medicine. Popular he alth books of 2014 are represented by two more works by this famous medical writer: “Russian Roulette. How to survive in the struggle for your own he alth” and “About the most important thing with Dr. Myasnikov.”

Among the best-selling books in 2014 is the social dystopia Atlas Shrugged, created by Russian American Ayn Rand. This is a novel that combines realism and fantasy, in which each part is titled according to the laws of formal logic. It took the author twelve years to write the work. Many economists and philosophers who research popular science books call the novel a "text book on public choice theory."

Bestsellers abroad

In the ranking of British fiction, the book "The Fault in Our Stars" is the leader, which we have already talked about above. Also among the British in 2014, the children's work "Terrible Aunt" was popular,written by David Walliams. It tells the story of how Aunt Alberta seeks to deprive a young girl, Stella Saxby, of a we althy family, of her fortune. Popular books among Russians and Englishmen are often the same, so the novel Inferno, widely circulated in Russia, is also at the top of the sales list in the UK.

In the US in 2014, readers most often purchased Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Road. This book was recognized as the most popular among elementary school students. Also in demand was the detective novel Gray Mountain by John Grisham. In third place in the ranking of the most read books in 2014 among Americans, the detective story "In the Hope of Die", written by James Patterson, was fixed.