Nothing says “romance” quite like alphebetizing the spice cabinet and tossing out piles of old underpants.
Why else would so many Americans have spent last Valentine’s Day swooning over the idea of owning their very own copy of “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing?”
Seriously, if you've ever suffered through a lunch with your sister's new boyfriend and thought, "What does she see in him?" does Audible Inc. have a news flash for you:
Love is inscrutable. Really, really inscrutable.
Audible, the world's largest seller and producer of downloadable audiobooks and other "spoken word entertainment" (you may know them from their sponsorship plugs during "Downton Abbey" on PBS) lets users create "wish lists" of titles they'd like others to take the hint and buy for them. And now Audible's culled through all that material and come up with a list of the most wished-for audiobooks on Valentine's Day over the past six years.
To be clear, that doesn’t mean the top romantic books people put on their lists throughout the year, whenever it occurs to them. It mean the ones they specifically added on Feb. 14th, when, presumably, their minds were most on love. Whatever that means.
Case in point: “Fifty Shades of Grey,” was the most wished-for book on Valentine’s Day in 2015, just ahead of — sigh — “Fifty Shades Darker” in second place.
At least those both smack of (pun intended) romance in one form or another. But pardon us for feeling a little less weak at the knees over last year’s No. 1 V-Day title, How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships.” Or at No. 3, that volume on decluttering. Who knows, maybe it’s a metaphor for weeding out all the losers in your little black book.
Related: Speed-marrying: Dash to the altar in a day
Unless maybe we’re reading too much into all of this?
“It’s fun to observe the rich mix of fiction, nonfiction, self-help, romance, history, thriller, and young adult audiobooks that demonstrate the vast interests of our customers, even at one particular moment in time,” said Audible EVP and Publisher Beth Anderson.”We are also looking forward to seeing which titles Audible members wish for most on Valentine’s Day this year!”
While we wait for that, here are the top three titles for previous years:
2016: 1. How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships by Leil Lowndes, narrated by the author and Joyce Bean; 2. East of Eden by John Steinbeck, narrated by Richard Poe; 3. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller
2015: 1.Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, narrated by Becca Battoe; 2. Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James, narrated by Becca Battoe; 3. Classic Love Poems by William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, narrated by Richard Armitage
2014: 1. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote, narrated by Michael C. Hall; 2. The Nerd’s Guide to Being Confident by Mark Manson, narrated by Fleet Cooper; 3. Divergent by Veronica Roth, narrated by Emma Galvin
2013: Touch & Go by Lisa Gardner, narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers; 2. Guilt by Jonathan Kellerman, narrated by John Rubinstein; 3. Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and how it Can Help You Find – and Keep – Love by Amir Levine and Rachel S.F. Heller, narrated by Walter Dixon
2012: 1. The Stand by Stephen King, narrated by Grover Gardner; 2. Kill Shot by Vince Flynn, narrated by George Guidall; 3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, narrated by Carolyn McCormick
2011: 1. The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, The Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick, narrated by Alan Sklar; 2. The Secret Soldier by Alex Berenson, narrated by George Guidall; 3. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, narrated by Jennifer Ikeda
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