The Fox Tales

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Novel update
  • Novel books
  • Novel story
  • Novel list

The Fox Tales

Header Banner

The Fox Tales

  • Home
  • Novel update
  • Novel books
  • Novel story
  • Novel list
Novel list
Home›Novel list›What are the most popular books in town?

What are the most popular books in town?

By Jack N. Hernandez
December 11, 2021
0
0


There is no shortage of books set in San Francisco, nor of the lists that compile and classify these books. These critically-written lists typically include classics such as “The Maltese Falcon, “Tales of the city”, As well as more recent bestsellers like“The Joy of Luck club” and “The circle. “

But beyond review lists, now there’s another way to find San Francisco-based books: crowdsourcing data. The Chronicle collected and analyzed data from Goodreads on hundreds of San Francisco-based books to see which books receive the most reviews and are the highest rated. While many old standbys appear in the data, there are also a few funny surprises. Good reading is a book recommendation and cataloging website, where users follow, rate, and comment on books. The site has over 130 million users worldwide and includes the most widely published books in its database.

For this analysis, The Chronicle looked at books that list San Francisco as a framework – that is, information from users of the platform. We excluded books with less than 1,000 Goodreads ratings – an indicator of readership since Goodreads users typically rate the books they have read, although some people rate the highly anticipated unpublished books.

The most popular book is the 2010 fantasy adventure novel “The lost heroBy Rick Riordan, the first in the five-volume “Heroes of Olympus” series. He has over 700,000 marks, with an average of 4.3. The book, however, isn’t set entirely in San Francisco – the city is just one of seven places listed as a setting on Goodreads.

The classic from 1908, “Martin eden”, By Jack London is the top rated book on our list. Based on over 30,000 ratings, it has an average of 4.5, which by Goodreads criteria is between “really liked it” and “it was amazing”.

But it’s not just the classics that are getting all the attention. The Most Popular Books, that is, the best rated books by Goodreads, are a mix of old and recently published books. Classics include “I know why the caged bird is singing, “Amy Tam’s Historical Fiction Novel”The Joy of Luck club“And two of Philip K. Dick’s science fiction novels,”The man of the high castle” and “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?“Among the most recent books is the James Patterson mystery thriller”1st to die“, As well as three romance novels”Ugly love, “The language of flowers” and “Wallbanger. “

These three romance novels are examples of San Francisco-based books that are both popular and beloved. All three have at least 190,000 scores, with an average score of 4.0 or higher.

Like “The Lost Hero,” all of these books aren’t set just in San Francisco – or the Bay Area for that matter. But for something almost entirely in San Francisco, there is “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour bookstoreBy local author Robin Sloan – # 10 on our list. The book centers on a fictional bookstore on Broadway Street, which Sloan says pays homage to the independent City Lights Booksellers in North Beach.

While most of the action takes place inside the bookstore, Sloan takes readers to other Bay Area locations, including the Google campus and the streets of Telegraph Hill. And physical location aside, Sloan’s characters and cultural references are quintessential “San Franciscan” – the protagonist is a web developer who uses data visualization to solve the mystery of the novel.

Sloan has lived in the Bay Area for years, which he says is the reason his two novels and two short stories are based there. “I want to put these stories in the world that I walk in, so it was always going to be San Francisco or the Bay Area,” he said.

“Sir. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore” and Sloan’s second novel, “Levain,” contain either science fiction or fantasy elements that reflect how he views the city and its people. here who operate with a level of intensity and ambition far above average, and often what these people do is poke their noses 15 minutes into the future, find out where we are all going to be in a little while time, ”he said.

For Alice Clayton, author of the love novel “Wallbanger”, San Francisco is a romantic and enchanting place. Clayton, who chooses to write under a pseudonym and lives in St. Louis, grew up in the Midwest and discovered San Francisco as a child while reading Beverly Cleary’s books. As an adult, she often traveled to the Bay Area for work and quickly fell in love with the city. When it came time to write “Wallbanger,” placing it in what she saw as a romantic city seemed like the perfect match.

“I absolutely loved being in the city and seeing it through the eyes of the Midwest,” Clayton said. “Everyone looked glamorous. Everything was heels, chic, chic and tight, but with a relaxed Californian touch.

Our analysis found 371 commonly read books that take place in San Francisco, making the city well-ranked compared to most other major US cities. We found about 450 popular books in Los Angeles, 411 in Chicago, 326 in Washington, DC, and 290 in Seattle.

But none can compare to literary significance of New York City. We found over 1,300 popular books set there, including classics like “Gatsby the magnificent” and “The catcher in the rye”, As well as recent bestsellers“The glass castle” and “A little life. “

Most of the San Francisco-based books were published during this century. About 20% of the books analyzed were published before 2000, such as the mystery thriller “The Maltese Falcon“And classic tragic novel”McTeague. “The oldest book is a The mystery of Sherlock Holmes published in 1891.

Since the data used in this analysis comes from Goodreads users, our list is not exhaustive. There is a separate listing for Books based on the Bay Area, as well as others lists compiled by users which specifies kind and public.

When asked about his favorite San Francisco-based books, Sloan listed three that he described as being outside the box: “Abortion, “Our Lady of Darkness” and “The ministry of the future. “

For Sloan, what makes a good place-based fiction book is the ability to change the way a reader experiences a place. This happened to Sloan after reading a passage from “Our Lady of Darkness” by Fritz Leiber which takes place in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco. Now every time he goes to the park he can’t help but think about the scene from the book.

“The cool thing about writing in real places is that you almost get to haunt (readers’) experiences of the world,” Sloan said.

Nami Sumida is a San Francisco Chronicle data visualization developer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @namisumida



Related posts:

  1. November 10, 2021 Books to add to your reading list
  2. Here’s a full list of the Green New Deal documents in Biden’s $ 3.5 trillion plan to rebuild better.
  3. Timothée Chalamet: Dune is a show like LOTR in places
  4. “The Throwback List” interview with Lily Anderson
Tagslos angelesscience fictionshort storiestakes place

Categories

  • Novel books
  • Novel list
  • Novel story
  • Novel update

Recent Posts

  • Three books about Stalin that shed light on Russian history
  • Rakovina Therapeutics Inc. Announces First Quarter 2022 Financial Results and Provides Business Update
  • Best Stan shows and movies June 2022: Full list of upcoming Stan shows in June, including All I Know About Love, P-Valley, Queer as Folk (2022) and Becoming Elizabeth
  • The Unexpected Crazy True Story of How Natasha Lance Rogoff Created Sesame Street in Russia
  • Fiction and non-fiction books that navigate the roller coaster of grief

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • September 2019
  • June 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • May 2018
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • May 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015
  • December 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • July 2013
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions