Tuesday, March 5, 2013

In praise of: Nicky Pellegrino

It is census night here in New Zealand so what better time to consider the top 20 New Zealand fiction titles borrowed from Auckland public library system last year:
1. The Forrests
Emily Perkins
2. The villa girls
Nicky Pellegrino
3. The conductor
Sarah Quigley
Jenny Pattrick
Sarah-Kate Lynch
Nalini Singh
Nicky Pellegrino
Nicky Pellegrino
Nicky Pellegrino
Lloyd Jones
Nalini Singh
Stephanie Johnson
Paul Thomas
Nalini Singh
Danielle Hawkins
Jenny Pattrick
Nalini Singh
Vanda Symon
Lloyd Jones
Owen Marshall

Not only does Nicky Pellegrino have four titles in the top 10 of this list of most-borrowed books from Auckland libraries for 2012, but also her books sell like hotcakes. Ask any bookseller. 

She must be one of New Zealand’s most biggest best-selling authors ever. But she has never registered in the top 10 bestseller lists of NZ books published every Friday by Booksellers NZ because her books are published overseas and what we get are imported editions. So she is not considered a New Zealand author even though she lives here and all her novels were written here. I have pointed out the folly of this strange criterion to the good people at Booksellers NZ – and also to the CEO, Lincoln Gould – but to no avail. 

It’s not just Nicky. Yesterday Craig Ranapia tweeted:
Last person who said “I never read New Zealand literature” to me, had just finished gushing about Paul Cleave. Bless.

1 comment:

  1. I take your point about 'NZ' books, but was surprised you haven't identified the predominant book styles on the list: fantasy (is that the proper term?) and what I call chic(k) lit making a killing.

    Nice to see the top book is Emily Perkin's which I enjoyed enormously, borrowed from a library near me (Oz).

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