Best Seller?

I just finished reading “The Ground Beneath Her Feet: A Novel” by Salman Rushdie. It was a very good book, not a fast read, but one I enjoyed digging through. I noticed on the cover that it was a New York Times Bestseller. I read a lot of books. Some bestsellers, most not. At the risk of sounding like a snob, I find this “best seller” info hard to believe. Actually, it’s not hard to believe because the list is based on book sales and, supposedly, concrete data to determine who makes it. I guess what I have trouble believing is that everyone that bought the book read it. It is dense and full of word play, subtle metaphors and a whole bunch of things I have no doubt I missed. It just didn’t seem like the typical “best seller” fare. Most best sellers are non-fiction “tell alls” or “tell me hows” and, if they’re fiction, they are suspenseful spy novels or chick-lit. Given the fact that the book was published in 1999, does that mean that we used to read this heavier stuff in large enough numbers to register as a best seller? Or did a whole lot folks buy it because of the author’s name and never actually got around to reading it? It just confuses me and I had to say something. So there.