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Canadian books that made a difference over the past decade

Indigo Books & Music Inc. have revealed the 75 books that most impacted booklovers during the past ten years in the Canadian retailer’s first Best of the Decade List. Compiled, considered and debated by the dedicated team of Indigo book buyers who have read, reviewed, recommended and bought a staggering number of books since 2000, the Indigo Best of the Decade List is neither a selection of personal favourites nor a spotlight on overlooked hidden gems. Indigo’s listing of the new millennium’s best books so far is driven by their impact and their popularity, the top titles from more than 140,000 titles that were sold in 2009 alone; books that motivated Canadians to read, to talk and to think about life and the world around them.

On the Indigo Best of the Decade fiction list, the decade’s best fiction told heart-wrenching stories, followed strong female characters like Lawrence Hill’s Aminata Diallo, and harnessed the power of prize winning to heighten the success of bestsellers like Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi. Both Hill’s historical fiction and Martel’s modern fable landed on the top ten list of books that most changed the lives of Canadian booklovers.

Young adult fiction flourished through the past decade with Indigo and Chapters seeing 200% growth through the latter five years. As expected, the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer top the Indigo Best of the Decade List for young readers.

Indigo Best of the Decade 2000-2009

Fiction

• The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen, 2001
• The Life Of Pi, Yann Martel, 2002
• The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold, 2002
• The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, 2003
• The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger, 2003
• The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Nighttime, Mark Haddon, 2003
• Shadow Of The Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 2004
• Runaway, Alice Munro, 2004
• The Birth House, Ami McKay, 2006
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy, 2006
• The Book Of Negroes, Lawrence Hill, 2007

Biographies

• Lucky, Alice Sebold, 1999
• Reading Lolita In Tehran, Azar Nafisi, 2003
• Scar Tissue, Anthony Kiedis, 2004Dreams Of My Father , Barack Obama, 2004
• The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, 2005
• The Know It All, A.J. Jacobs, 2005
• Tender Bar, J.R. Moehringer, 2005
• Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, 2006
• A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah, 2007
• Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, 2007
• Beautiful Boy, David Sheff, 2007
• Somewhere Towards the End, Diana Athill, 2009

Non-Fiction

• The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, 2000
• No Logo, Naomi Klein, 2000
• Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain, 2000
• Paris 1919, Margaret Macmillan, 2001
• Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser, 2001
• The Power Of Now, Eckhart Tolle, 2001
• Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky, 2002
• Moneyball, Michael Lewis, 2003
• Shake Hands With The Devil, Romeo Dallaire, 2003
• 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, Patricia Schultz, 2003
• A Short History of Progress, Ronald Wright, 2004
• Long Way Round, Ewan McGregor, 2004
• Marley & Me, John Grogan, 2005
• Freakonomics, Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner, 2005
• The World Is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman, 2005
• Team Of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin, 2005
• Collapse, Jared Diamond, 2005
• The Audacity Of Hope, Barack Obama, 2006
• The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright, 2006
• God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, 2006
• Three Cups Of Tea, Greg Mortenson, 2006
• The Omnivores Dilemma, Michael Pollan, 2006
• Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore, 2006
• The Secret, Rhonda Byrne, 2006
• The Black Swan, Nassim Nichola Taleb, 2007
• Made To Stick, Chip Heath, 2007
• God Is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens, 2007
• Stuff Of Thought, Steven Pinker, 2007
• 100 Mile Diet, Alisa Smith, 2007
• Ascent Of Money, Niall Ferguson, 2008
• Payback, Margaret Atwood, 2008
• In Defense Of Food, Michael Pollan, 2008
• The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch, 2008

Young Adult Fiction

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling, 2007
• Twilight, Stephenie Meyer, 2005
• The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman, 2000
• Eragon, Christopher Paolini, 2003
• Diary of A Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney, 2007
• Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison, 2000
• A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket, 1999
• Bone: Out From Boneville, Jeff Smith, 2005
• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, 2005
• The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo, 2003

Booklovers’ Top Ten "Life-changing" Books

• The Bible
• To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee, 1960
• Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom, 1997
• Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery, 1908
• The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, 2003
• The Alchemist, Paul Coelho, 1988
• The Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill, 2007
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling, 1997
• The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien, 1954
• Life of Pi, Yann Martel, 2002

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• Round-up: JA Rowling, Bath-time for Pullman and Le Guin not finished yet
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• The Tales of Beedle the Bard: the fastest-selling book of 2008
• Fantasy news round-up, August 24, 2010
• A rebirth for reading: Hollywood turns movie buffs into enthusiastic readers
• Fantasy news round-up: May 20, 2010
• Fantasy news round-up – April 19, 2010

Posted: December 30th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Christopher Paolini, JK Rowling, JRR Tolkien, Philip Pullman, Stephenie Meyer