FOR YEARS, THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY HAS KEPT OUR ECONOMY AFLOAT: From the biggest advances which stimulate the free market, to the revolutionary ideas (“Tipping Point,” “Omnivore Dilemmas”) that stimulate our creative juices to get them flowing so we can create more jobs, the unsung hero of the American Recovery is good ol’ books and the people who make them.

To borrow from Mark Twain, “The reports of the publishing industry’s death have been exaggerated,” and 2012 was no different. From celebrity memoirs, to the finest literary fiction, to gigantic comic books that weigh 500 pounds and come in all different individual boxes like a goddamn MENSA torture chamber all so you can read about a lady with a plastic leg, 2012 was the year publishing showed us the full spectrum of human ingenuity — and made a ton of money doing it!

So, like the gentleman above, let’s raise a glass at the Alquongen Roundtable to the publishing industry and celebrate THE TOP TEN PUBLISHING INDUSTRY OF 2012:

10. Paperback novels

9. Hardback cookbooks

8. E*book cookbooks

7. (TIE) Magazine exclusives / Blurbs from writers

6. The biggest royalty checks

5. Writers on Charlie Rose

4. Sports memoirs with drug abuse

3. Wealth management books

2. Business books

1. Books that will stand the test of time