best-seller,book that, for a time, leads all others of its kind
in sales, a designation that serves as an index of popular
literary taste and judgment.  Bookman, an American magazine of
literature and criticism, began running best-seller lists in
1895, when it began publication. The list was compiled from
reports of sales at bookstores throughout the country. Similar
lists began to appear in other literary magazines and in
metropolitan newspapers. The lists most commonly considered
authoritative in the United States are those of Publishers
Weekly and The New York Times. The practice spread from the
United States; the British list generally considered most
authoritative is that of The Sunday Times (London)  , reprinted
in Bookseller.  . In the first decade of the 21st century, the
best-seller lists of provided a snapshot of global sales.  Such
lists are obviously of greatest use to publishers and
booksellers. From the beginning there has been a tendency among
both critics and the general public to suppose that