12 years of best-selling book covers, in one graph

What do 12 years of best-selling books look like? James Davenport of the blog If We Assume gathered the book covers for the Top 10 Best Selling books from USA Today from 2000 to 2012. Each “brick” represents one year, ranging from 2000 on the top to 2011 on the bottom. Each brick is divided into 48 columns, each representing a week, ranging from Jan. 1 on the left to New Year’s on the right. The books ranked 1 through 10 are arranged top to bottom within each brick. Davenport remarks that many best-selling book covers were white in the dotcom era and after Y2K. As the decade progressed, brightly colored covers became more popular. Dan Brown’s books start to dominate in 2003, while the massive black swatch in 2008 shows the popularity of the Twilight books. According to Davenport, you can also see a particular “decay pattern,” with books quickly jumping up the chart, then more gradually declining. Click "Know More" to see Davenport's original blog.