Amazon.com Editors Pick the Best Books of 1997

SEATTLE, WA (January 14, 1998)-- Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), Earth's Biggest Bookstore and the leading online bookseller, today announced its 40 best-selling books for 1997. Capturing the diversity of Amazon.com's (www.amazon.com) more than one million unique customers, the 1997 bestseller list includes a broad range of titles, from national bestsellers to lesser-known special interest books. For the first time, Amazon.com's team of in-house editors has announced their picks for the best books of 1997. The top 10 bestsellers and Editors' Picks are listed below:

Bestsellers for 1997

  1. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
  2. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
  3. The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger
  4. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
  5. Creating Killer Web Sites: The Art of Third-Generation Site Design by David S. Siegel
  6. Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris
  7. Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward R. Tufte
  8. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte
  9. Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
  10. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

A complete list of Amazon.com's top 40 bestsellers of 1997 can be viewed at www.amazon.com/bestsellers-of-1997

Editors' Picks for 1997

  1. Underworld by Don DeLillo
  2. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
  3. Straight Man by Richard Russo
  4. Perfect Agreement by Michael Downing
  5. The Bookshop: A Novel by Penelope Fitzgerald
  6. Naked by David Sedaris
  7. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
  8. Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
  9. The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte
  10. The Springs of Affection: Stories of Dublin by Maeve Brennan

A complete list of the 18 books selected as Amazon.com's Editors' Picks of 1997 can be viewed at www.amazon.com/editors-pick-list

Looking at the 1997 bestseller list, Amazon.com senior vice president David Risher noted significant changes in book buying at Amazon.com during the past year. "Our top-selling title in 1996 was David S. Siegel's Creating Killer Web Sites. In 1997, our number-one bestseller was Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, an anguishing personal account of an ill-fated Mount Everest expedition. I can think of no better illustration of the changes in Internet shopping over the past year. With our catalog of 2.5 million titles and thousands of expert reviews, author interviews, and customer comments, Amazon.com is thrilled to have introduced more than a million customers to books they love."

Wrapping up the "Best of '97" Amazon.com editors also featured the following:

  • Most Honored Books--Amazon.com's editors' favorite award-winning titles
  • Most Controversial Books--the year's most talked-about titles
  • Authors' Picks--some of Amazon.com's favorite authors share their favorite books for the year
  • Top News Stories--books that delve deeper into the issues behind the news
  • Sad Farewells--books to remember 30 remarkable people who passed away in 1997

Amazon.com, Inc., Earth's Biggest Bookstore, is the leading online retailer of books and is the premier bookseller on AOL.com, Yahoo!, Netscape, Excite, the AltaVista Search Service, @Home Network, and the Prodigy Shopping Network. Amazon.com offers a catalog of 2.5 million titles, easy-to-use search and browse features, e-mail services, personalized shopping services, secure Web-based credit card payment, and direct shipping to customers. Amazon.com has virtually unlimited online shelf space and offers customers a vast selection through an efficient search-and-retrieval interface, as well as streamlined ordering through 1- ClickSM technology.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from predicted results. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating history, the unpredictability of its future revenues, and risks associated with capacity constraints and management of growth. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in the company's final prospectus, dated May 15, 1997, as well as the company's Form 10Q for the third quarter ended September 30, 1997, both filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Amazon.com and Earth's Biggest Bookstore are service marks of Amazon.com, Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Amazon.com is headquartered at 1516 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101. Internet address: http://www.amazon.com. Telephone: (206) 622-2335.