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Amazon 2010 tops: Stieg Larsson, giraffe baby toys

No numbers were included, but Amazon has released its top-selling, most-wished-for, and most-gifted items in a bunch of categories for the year.

Caroline McCarthy Former Staff writer, CNET News
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos.
Caroline McCarthy
2 min read

The late author Stieg Larsson can posthumously claim another victory: His "Millennium Trilogy" of thrillers topped both the print and e-book categories on Amazon this year. "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" was Amazon's best-selling Kindle e-book, and "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" was the online marketplace's top seller in printed books, according to a year-end list released Thursday.

Those two books also topped those categories when it came to the most appearances on Amazon users' wish lists, but perhaps because of their gory subject matter were not the most popular gifted titles.

The top DVD sale on Amazon in 2010 was "The Blind Side," and the top video-on-demand movie was "Sherlock Holmes"; the printed book most frequently purchased as a gift on Amazon was "Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose," which was written by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (who, appropriately enough, sold his company to Amazon last year). The most-gifted Kindle book on Amazon was "Decision Points," the memoirs of former President George W. Bush.

Amazon's Kindle device was tops in the company's electronics category this year in all three lists: sales, gifts, and wish lists. Earlier this week, Amazon announced that the third-generation Kindle was its best-selling product of all time, dethroning a "Harry Potter" book for the title.

Some other items of note: Singer Susan Boyle's "The Gift" was the top-selling physical album, but Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" topped MP3 album sales and appeared on more wish lists. "Call Of Duty: Black Ops" was the bestselling and most-wished-for video game, but the decidedly friendlier "Just Dance 2" was gifted more often. Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro, likewise, topped computer sales and wish lists, but the most-gifted computer was a 15-inch Toshiba laptop.

Topping all three lists in the "baby" category was the "Vulli Sophie the Giraffe Teether," a kiddie toy with which I was unfamiliar. Looks cute, but really: $17 for something your kid's supposed to chew up?

Guess it's the MacBook Pro of baby toys. Check out the full list here.