YEREVAN BESTSELLER 4/44 – Three new books enter the list

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. The “Art of Loving” by Erich Frommleads the list of YEREVAN BESTSELLER project of ARMENPRESS.

In this work the author presents love as a skill that can be taught and developed. He rejects the idea of loving as something magical and mysterious that cannot be analyzed and explained, and is therefore skeptical about popular ideas such as "falling in love” or being helpless in the face of love. Fromm observes that real love "is not a sentiment which can be easily indulged in by anyone." It is only through developing one's total personality to the capacity of loving one's neighbor with "true humility, courage, faith and discipline" that one attains the capacity to experience real love.

New book enters this week’s list and is ranked the 2nd. “Without dogma”, anovel byHenryk Sienkiewicz, a PolishNobel Prize in Literaturewinner, was published in 1891. Its narrative concentrates around the experiences of Leon Płoszowski, a man from a wealthy aristocratic family, who struggles to find the meaning of life in world without morality by trying to self-analyze his feelings towards the encountered women. Written in first person, the novel is the only one of Sienkiewicz’s works that follows diary format.

“The Collected Novels” by Stefan Zweig is ranked the 3th in the list. The book contains the author’s most interesting works which were always popular.

Mark Aren’s “Where wild roses bloom” comes next. This is the second novel of the author which describes the inner world of an Armenophobic Turkish former serviceman, when he, already an old man, suddenly hears a lullaby song that reminds him of his mother and later finds out that the song is in Armenian: realizing his parents were Armenians. The same former serviceman spends his remaining life searching the graves of his parents, without knowing that it was a misunderstanding.

The fifth position in this week’s ranking is “Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life”. Published on September 8, 1998, it is amotivational business fable. The text describes change in one's work and life, and four typical reactions to those changes by twomiceand two "little people," during their hunt forcheese. ANew York Timesbusinessbestsellerupon release,Who Moved My Cheese?remained on the list for almost five years and spent over 200 weeks onPublishers Weekly's hardcover nonfiction list.It has sold more than 26 million copies worldwide in 37 languages and remains one of the best-selling business books.

“The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” is ranked the 6th in the list. It is a 2006Holocaustnovel byIrish novelistJohn Boyne. Unlike themonths of planning Boyne devoted to his other books, he said that he wrote the entire first draft ofThe Boy in the Striped Pyjamasin two and a half days, barely sleeping until he got to the end.

“Art of Devotion or Ode to Rose” by photographer and writer Edgar Harutyunyan is ranked 7th in the list.

“The Picture of Dorian Gray”byOscar Wilde this week took the 8th position. Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist who is impressed and infatuated by Dorian'sbeauty; he believes that Dorian’s beauty is responsible for the new mode in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat'shedonisticworldview: that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life.

George Orwell’s “1984” is 9th. The book is labeled as “banned” in many countries of the world.

“Veronika Decides to Die”by Paulo Coelho concludes this week’s list. It tells the story of 24-year-oldSlovenianVeronika, who appears to have everything in life going for her, but who decides to kill herself. This book is partly based on Coelho's experience in variousmental institutions, and deals with the subject of madness. The gist of the message is that "collective madness is called sanity".

To complete the bestseller list, the following bookshops have participated in the survey: “Narek” (51-91-36), “Bookinist” (53-74-13), “Antares” (091-90-01-23) and “Zangak” (23-26-49).