If you look at the top 5 sellers for 2005 on the Amazon website you will find some surprising inclusions. The top spot is, unsurprisingly, occupied by J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the run-away winner this year, but below this we find a strange mix of books, from a self-help book teaching us how to become younger and healthier, ‘A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century’, and ‘A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything’, to a book that looks at ‘The Power of Thinking Without Thinking’. But what I’m sure you all want to know is what Oxbow customers have been buying this year. The Top 5 bestsellers for 2005 show that Oxbow customers are as discerning as ever:

In 5th spot is Historic Oxford by David Sturdy which celebrates the history, architecture, myths and hidden treasures of the city.

At number 4 is Gavin Lucas’ Archaeology of Time, an excellent study of the concept of time in archaeology which was reviewed in the January edition of OXeN.

Number 3 is The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization by eminent scholar Bryan Ward-Perkins. Reviewed for OXeN in July, many of you appreciated the fact that this book really did fill a gap in the market.

Just missing the top spot is Archaeological Finds: A Guide to Identification by Norena Shopland – proof that sometimes all we want is a basic guide to identifying what we find in the ground.

So what’s number 1? Written by the highly successful duo of Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn, Archaeology: The Key Concepts is our No. 1 for 2005. You obviously agreed with us that this book is bang up-to-date, comprehensive and invaluable.

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