Harry Potter Novels Make USA Today List of Top Books of the 2000s

Dec 24, 2009

Posted by: EdwardTLC

Books

Novels from the Harry Potter series by author J. K. Rowling have been included in six of the ten spots on USA Today’s list of the Top Ten Books of the 2000s. Miss Rowling’s novels placed along side the popular Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer and the Dan Brown novel The Da Vinci Code on this list. The paper notes:

Human readers made it a big decade for novels about wizards, vampires and a Harvard symbologist. Two series for kids with “crossover” appeal to grown-ups ”J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight” swept nine of the top 10 spots on USA TODAY’s best-selling books of the decade. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is No. 2.

Rowling was a best seller before 2000, when third book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire [sic] sold a record 3 million copies its first weekend.

By 2007’s release of the finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, speculation about Harry’s death (unfounded) rose to levels not seen since Charles Dickens’ 19th-century serials. A record 8.3 million copies sold in a day.

The article goes on to make mention of the linked successes of the film adaptations of these novels, and quotes Publishers Lunch founder Michael Cader as saying, “They opened as big or bigger than the most anticipated movies, with pre-orders and opening-night parties, which spilled over to other books.”

The full top ten list by USA Today is as follows:

1. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
2. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
4. New Moon, Stephenie Meyer
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
6. Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
8. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
9. Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
10. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.