Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com) customers can order up to midnight on December 19th, and still receive free shipping on orders of $25 or more with delivery in time for Christmas; see site for details. "December 19th represents one of the latest cut-off dates for free shipping by Christmas of any e-commerce merchant," said Kevin Frain, Vice President of Operations. "Our expertise in both e-commerce fulfillment and in distribution operations enables us to provide our customers with more time to take advantage of our unique Fast & Free delivery service."
Customers are buying a wide range of book titles with biographies and memoirs among the most popular. Leading the bestseller lists in these categories are James Frey's A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard, Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and Frank McCourt's Teacher Man.
Cookbooks continue to be holiday favorites with Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats the blockbuster cooking title of the season.
The film adaptations of C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire helped to spur interest in both fantasy series, making fantasy one of the biggest-selling book categories of the season. Many more books for children and teens are among the bestsellers this year - 58 of our 200 top-sellers are from the kids/teens categories.
Humor is also a popular category. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes is one of Barnes & Noble.com's most successful gift items. Also on the list are Al Franken's The Truth (with Jokes) and Jeff Foxworthy's Redneck Dictionary.
General nonfiction is up this year over 2004, with twice as many of the bestsellers from History and Current Affairs. Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals tops the list. Other top titles include Jimmy Carter's Our Endangered Values, Thomas L. Friedman's The World is Flat, and Stephen D. Levitt's Freakonomics.
Although nonfiction dominates the bestseller lists this season, there are a number of hot fiction titles. The biggest right now are James Patterson's Mary, Mary, Sue Grafton's S is for Silence, and Jan Karon's conclusion to her Mitford series, Light from Heaven.
About Barnes & Noble.com
Barnes & Noble.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), is a leading online retailer of books, music, and DVDs/videos. Barnes & Noble.com's bookstore includes the largest in-stock selection of in-print book titles with access to approximately one million titles for immediate delivery, supplemented by more than 30 millions listings from its nationwide network of out-of-print, rare and used book dealers. Barnes & Noble.com offers its customers fast delivery, free shipping on orders of $25 or more, easy and secure ordering, and rich editorial content.
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Carolyn J. Brown, 212-633-4062
cbrown@bn.com
or
Burson-Marsteller
Hillary Klein, 212-614-4170
hillary_klein@nyc.bm.com
