If a bestseller list shuns authors it dislikes, it should say so

People love lists. The 1,000 richest people, the 100 places to see before you die, the ten most-wanted fugitives; promise to make the chaos of life more manageable. Benjamin Franklin was a superfan, using lists to explain everything from the 13 virtues necessary to be successful to eight reasons to choose an older woman as a lover.Since the first list of bestselling books was published in America in 1895, critiques have piled up like the stacks beside a bibliophile’s bed. In 1932 M. Lincoln Schuster, a co-founder of Simon & Schuster, a publisher, warned that: “The current procedure for compiling…the so-called ‘bestseller’ lists has led to many abuses.” He argued that cumulative sales should count. Currently, only “fastsellers” qualify, leaving the most popular book of all time, , out of the rankings.