Ask HN: Do you relate to the masses?

[aswanson]

In browsing the Amazon topseller list, I get the eerie sense of being completely out of touch with the zeitgeist:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/ref=pd_dp_ts_b_1

Are you at all in tune with what most people think like and desire?

[silentbicycle]

The list is an aggregate, and most people probably would only have an interest in a couple of those. It's probably skewed towards new books, too; the sales for things like fad diet books probably drop off quite quickly. Long-term sales might be more interesting, as well. (Speaking as somebody who worked in a public library for about six years, people are more likely to grab something intriguing on a whim if it's free.)

Also, there is no "average" person, just aspects that pop up more frequently when you combine characteristics of lots of people. Individual people, even people you might at a first glance consider shockingly mundane, have their interesting sides. People viewed as a group are like stones that have had most of their interesting scratches and edges polished off.

[philwelch]

Even worse, this is a topseller list of people who still read books.

Which is probably a minority of the US population nowadays.

[aswanson]

I wonder if the general stats for the books hold in other countries. It would be interesting to see if France or Germany had the apparent weight loss and self-help level of interest that we have.

[davidbnewquist]

5 out of the the top 25 are self-help books on the topic of eating less.

4 of those 5 are targeted to women, 2 have the word 'girl' in the title.

3 of those 5 occupy spots in the top 4.

[evilneanderthal]

"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!"

I guess there's ONE thing in there I can relate to.

[davidbnewquist]

7 of the top 25 are about unhumans: zombies, vampires or demi-gods.