Top Gay Novels List

[reviews_and_ramblings]

After asking your opinion, friends, I realize that you like my "In the Spotlight" appointment where I feature the authors in my Top Gay Novels list even if it seems a not so followed appointment. So I decide to try to do a better work, and I sat down and think where it lacks. First of all, I noticed that most of the books and authors on top of the list are obviously books released first than the others. Second a book could be on top of the list since when it was released it had an huge success, but then it didn't sell any more copies, and maybe there are books that continue to sell years after years.

So here it's how I changed the list (step by step):

1) To enter the list a book must be released after 1999 (from January 1st 2000 on) in print (sorry I can't consider ebooks, since I need to put a limit). Same reason why I will consider only books released in the 21 century.
2) On LibraryThing I will draw the first 100 books per shared copies: I will use LibraryThing since for now it's the most shared tool I know to build a Library on line.
3) To the Number of Copies Owned on LibraryThing I will apply an Age Factor criteria (Years since Release Date): I will divide the Copies for the Age Factor, in this way I will obtain the Copies for Year.
4) To the Copies for Years I will apply again the Age Factor: I will sum to the Copies for Years the Age Factor, in this way I will award the longevity of the book.

Every week I will continue to feature an author from the list. After the first 40 authors (and this will happen in few week), I will close the first 40 position and create an Amazon list: the list will not change for the next 40 weeks, when I will draw the second 40 positions list reopened also the first 40 positions.

And now if you are interested, here are the first 100 books after all the steps above:

1 Call Me by Your Name by Andre Aciman
2 Melusine by Sarah Monette
3 Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
4 Shadows Return by Lynn Flewelling
5 At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill
6 Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron
7 All Through the Night by Suzanne Brockmann
8 A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice
9 Liquor by Poppy Z. Brite
10 Geography Club by Brent Hartinger
11 Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez
12 Totally Joe by James Howe
13 Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale
14 Bareback by Chris Owen
15 Breakfast with Scot by Michael Downing
16 Saints of Augustine by P.E. Ryan
17 Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger
18 Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman
19 Leave Myself Behind by Bart Yates
20 The Back Passage by James Lear
21 The Tin Star by J. L. Langley
22 The World of Normal Boys by K. M. Soehnlein
23 Brethren: Raised By Wolves by W. A. Hoffman
24 A Bit of Rough by Laura Baumbach
25 The Year of Ice by Brian Malloy
26 Comfort and Joy by Jim Grimsley
27 The Coming Storm by Paul Russell
28 A Strong and Sudden Thaw by R. W. Day
29 Tale of Two Summers by Brian Sloan
30 A Son Called Gabriel by Damian McNicholl
31 Captain's Surrender by Alex Beecroft
32 Looking For It by Michael Thomas Ford
33 The God Eaters by Jesse Hajicek
34 Fatal Shadows by Josh Lanyon
35 A Secret Edge by Robin Reardon
36 On Fire by Drew Zachary
37 The Abomination by Paul Golding
38 Standish by Erastes
39 The Straight Road to Kylie by Nico Medina
40 Bad Case of Loving You by Laney Cairo
41 Three Day Passes by Sean Michael
42 Vampire Vow by Michael Schiefelbein
43 PsyCop: Partners by Jordan Castillo Price
44 Soul Mates: Bound by Blood by Jourdan Lane
45 Clay's Way by Blair Mastbaum
46 Ransom by Lee Rowan
47 Oleander House by Ally Blue
48 Werewolves by Elliott O'Donnell
49 Avoidance by Michael Lowenthal
50 Edinburgh by Alexander Chee
51 The Trouble Boy by Tom Dolby
52 Scarlet and the White Wolf by Kirby Crow
53 The Phoenix by Ruth Sims
54 Half-Life by Aaron Krach
55 Lawnboy by Paul Lisicky
56 No Going Home by T. A. Chase
57 Latter Days: A Novel by C. Jay Cox
58 The Assignment by Evangeline Anderson
59 The Price of Temptation by M. J. Pearson
60 Falling by M. L. Rhodes
61 Every Man For Himself by Orland Outland
62 Where The Boys Are by William J. Mann
63 He's The One by Timothy James Beck
64 Metes and Bounds by Jay Quinn
65 Jumping Into Things by Julia Talbot
66 Desert Sons by Mark Kendrick
67 Bourbon Street Blues by Greg Herren
68 Common Sons by Ronald L. Donaghe
69 My Best Man by Andy Schell
70 When You Were Me by Robert Rodi
71 Can't Buy Me Love by Chris Kenry
72 Setting the Lawn on Fire by Mack Friedman
73 Someone Killed His Boyfriend by David Stukas
74 Strings Attached by Nick Nolan
75 Tricks of the Trade by Ben Tyler
76 Any Kind Of Luck by William Jack Sibley
77 Bound In Blood by David Thomas Lord
78 A Better Place by Mark A. Roeder
79 First Person Plural by Andrew W.M. Beierle
80 Little Miss Evil by Lev Raphael
81 Wicked Angels by Eric Jourdan
82 A Push and a Shove by Christopher Kelly
83 Selfish and Perverse by Bob Smith
84 The Master of Seacliff by Max Pierce
85 Hot Sauce by Scott Pomfret
86 Daytime Drama by Dave Benbow
87 The Night We Met by Rob Byrnes
88 Love & Sex by Michael Cart
89 Master Of Obsidian by Jamie Craig
90 Male of the Species by Kate Steele
91 Heaven Sent by Jet Mykles
92 Through It Came Bright Colors by Trebor Healey
93 Spare Parts by Scott & Scott
94 The Boys and the Bees by Joe Babcock
95 Alex in Wonderland by Michel Lacroix
96 A Time Before Me by Michael Holloway Perronne
97 Fingering The Family Jewels by Greg Lilly
98 Tempestuous by Morgan Hawke
99 L.A. Heat by P.A. Brown
100 A Habit for Death by Chuck Zito

What makes me feel that the criteria are not so wrong is that, more or less, there is not so many differences between before and after applying the correction factors, only that some new books enter the first positions sooner than before.

And here if you want is the same list with all the calculation:

http://www.elisarolle.com/romance/top_100_gay_novels.htm

Please feel free to send me comments or corrections if something is wrong or even to give me advice on how make better the above list

Comments

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Absolutely they are not all books I read, even if I'm trying to read as much as possible. The first draft was made more than a year ago taking all the print books of some LGBT publishers (major and minor publishers), all the LAMBA Awards winners, all the books in the top selling gay romance list on Amazon. From that moment on, I update the list every month with the new release. To draw the list of Top 100, I used as criteria the most shared books on LibraryThing, and so I agree with you when you say that some of them "for me" aren't in the Top 100, but I try to be as impartial as possible using a "common" criteria. Elisa