Bestseller lists of yesterday - today's classics?

Tigerlily · Bestseller lists of yesterday - today's classics?

http://www.caderbooks.com/bestintro.html

Lists bestselling books from the 1900s to the 1990s. Interesting to see if there are any on the lists that are widely read and loved today.

Also interesting to see what were the bestselling books the year you were born.

These are the bestselling books from the year I was born:

Fiction

1. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach

2. Once Is Not Enough, Jacqueline Susann

3. Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut

4. The Odessa File, Frederick Forsyth

5. Burr, Gore Vidal

6. The Hollow Hills, Mary Stewart

7. Evening in Byzantium, Irwin Shaw

8. The Matlock Paper, Robert Ludlum

9. The Billion Dollar Sure Thing, Paul E. Erdman

10. The Honorary Consul, Graham Greene

N O N F I C T I O N

1. The Living Bible, Kenneth Taylor

2. Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution, Robert C. Atkins

3. I'm O.K., You're O.K., Thomas Harris

4. The Joy of Sex, Alex Comfort

5. Weight Watchers Program Cookbook, Jean Nidetch

6. How To Be Your Own Best Friend, Mildred Newman, et al.

7. The Art of Walt Disney, Christopher Finch

8. Better Homes and Gardens Home Canning Cookbook

9. Alistair Cooke's America, Alistair Cooke

10. Sybil, Flora R. Schreiber

Can you guess the year?

jobar

What an interesting site...these are from my birth year !!

1. By Love Possessed, James Gould Cozzens

2. Peyton Place, Grace Metalious

3. Compulsion, Meyer Levin

4. Rally Round the Flag, Boys!, Max Shulman

5. Blue Camellia, Frances Parkinson Keyes

6. Eloise in Paris, Kay Thompson

7. The Scapegoat, Daphne du Maurier

8. On the Beach, Nevil Shute

9. Below the Salt, Thomas B. Costain

10. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

N O N F I C T I O N

1. Kids Say the Darndest Things!, Art Linkletter

2. The FBI Story, Don Whitehead

3. Stay Alive All Your Life, Norman Vincent Peale

4. To Live Again, Catherine Marshall

5. Better Homes and Gardens Flower Arranging

6. Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing, Robert Paul Smith

7. Baruch: My Own Story, Bernard M. Baruch

8. Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Jean Kerr

9. The American Heritage Book of Great Historic Places

10. The Day Christ Died, Jim Bishop

charlottestar

Here's mine (not a particularly inspiring year by the looks of it!)

1. E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial Storybook, William Kotzwinkle

2. Space, James A. Michener

3. The Parsifal Mosaic, Robert Ludlum

4. Master of the Game, Sidney Sheldon

5. Mistral's Daughter, Judith Krantz

6. The Valley of Horses, Jean M. Auel

7. Different Seasons, Stephen King

8. North and South, John Jakes

9. 2010: Odyssey Two, Arthur C. Clarke

10. The Man from St. Petersburg, Ken Follett

N O N F I C T I O N

1. Jane Fonda's Workout Book, Jane Fonda

2. Living, Loving and Learning, Leo Buscaglia

3. And More by Andy Rooney, Andrew A. Rooney

4. Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook

5. Life Extension: Adding Years to Your Life And Life to Your Years--A Practical Scientific Approach, Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw

6. When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Harold S. Kushner

7. A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney, Andrew A. Rooney

8. The Weight Watchers Food Plan Diet Cookbook, Jean Nidetch

9. Richard Simmons' Never-Say-Diet Cookbook, Richard Simmons

10. No Bad Dogs: The Woodhouse Way, Barbara Woodhouse

Also no 2 in the year 1900 is one of my favourite books! i never knew it was a bestseller!!

wonderlake

I liked the non fiction from 1994:

N O N F I C T I O N

1. In the Kitchen with Rosie, Rosie Daley
2. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, John Gray
3. Crossing the Threshold of Hope, John Paul II.
4. Magic Eye I, N.E. Thing Enterprises
5. The Book of Virtues, William J. Bennett
6. Magic Eye II, N.E. Thing Enterprises
7. Embraced by the Light, Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor
8. Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man, Tim Allen
9. Couplehood, Paul Reiser
10. Magic Eye III, N.E. Thing Enterprises

All those Magic Eye books eh? What a fad !

eightlegs

These are mine, only heard of one fiction and one non fiction from this year. Don't recognise many of the authors either!

1. The Arrangement, Elia Kazan

2. The Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron (tie)

2. The Chosen, Chaim Potok (tie)

4. Topaz, Leon Uris

5. Christy, Catherine Marshall

6. The Eighth Day, Thornton Wilder

7. Rosemary's Baby, Ira Levin

8. The Plot, Irving Wallace

9. The Gabriel Hounds, Mary Stewart - think I've even read it!

10. The Exhibitionist, Henry Sutton

N O N F I C T I O N

1. Death of a President, William Manchester

2. Misery Is a Blind Date, Johnny Carson

3. Games People Play, Eric Berne, M.D. - have done bits of this for work in the past

4. Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows, Rod McKuen

5. A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church, Father James Kavanaugh

6. Everything but Money, Sam Levenson

7. Our Crowd, Stephen Birmingham

8. Edgar Cayce--The Sleeping Prophet, Jess Stearn (tie)

8. Better Homes and Gardens Favorite Ways with Chicken (tie)

8. Phyllis Diller's Marriage Manual, Phyllis Diller (tie)

Karen

Very interesting Glynis, thank you. It's quite interesting to see how tastes have fluctuated over the years. Those listed for my birth year are

F I C T I O N

1. The Source, James A. Michener

2. Up the Down Staircase, Bel Kaufman

3. Herzog, Saul Bellow

4. The Looking Glass War, John Le Carré

5. The Green Berets, Robin Moore

6. Those Who Love, Irving Stone

7. The Man with the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming

8. Hotel, Arthur Hailey

9. The Ambassador, Morris West

10. Don't Stop the Carnival, Herman Wouk

N O N F I C T I O N

1. How To Be a Jewish Mother, Dan Greenburg

2. A Gift of Prophecy, Ruth Montgomery

3. Games People Play, Eric Berne, M.D.

4. World Aflame, Billy Graham

5. Happiness Is a Dry Martini, Johnny Carson

6. Markings, Dag Hammarskjöld

7. A Thousand Days, Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

8. My Shadow Ran Fast, Bill Sands

9. Kennedy, Theodore C. Sorensen

10. The Making of the President, 1964, Theodore H. White

blueflower

And here's mine

1. The Cardinal of the Kremlin, Tom Clancy

2. The Sands of Time, Sidney Sheldon

3. Zoya, Danielle Steel

4. The Icarus Agenda, Robert Ludlum

5. Alaska, James A. Michener

6. Till We Meet Again, Judith Krantz

7. The Queen of the Damned, Anne Rice

8. To Be the Best, Barbara Taylor Bradford

9. One: A Novel, Richard Bach

10. Mitla Pass, Leon Uris

N O N F I C T I O N

1. The 8-Week Cholesterol Cure, Robert E. Kowalski

2. Talking Straight, Lee Iacocca with Sonny Kleinfield

3. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, Steven W. Hawking

4. Trump: The Art of the Deal, Donald J. Trump with Tony Schwartz

5. Gracie: A Love Story, George Burns

6. Elizabeth Takes Off, Elizabeth Taylor

7. Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive, Harvey MacKay

8. Christmas in America, David Cohen, editor

9. Weight Watchers Quick Success Program Book, Jean Nidetch

10. Moonwalk, Michael Jackson

annecater

Here's my birth year bestsellers:

F I C T I O N

1. Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann - I read this in my teens and loved it

2. The Adventurers, Harold Robbins

3. The Secret of Santa Vittoria, Robert Crichton

4. Capable of Honor, Allen Drury

5. The Double Image, Helen MacInnes

6. The Fixer, Bernard Malamud

7. Tell No Man, Adela Rogers St. Johns

8. Tai-Pan, James Clavell

9. The Embezzler, Louis Auchincloss

10. All in the Family, Edwin O'Connor

N O N F I C T I O N

1. How to Avoid Probate, Norman F. Dacey

2. Human Sexual Response, William Howard Masters and Virginia E. Johnston

3. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote - I've got this on TBR

4. Games People Play, Eric Berne, M.D.

5. A Thousand Days, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

6. Everything but Money, Sam Levenson

7. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language

8. Rush to Judgment, Mark Lane

9. The Last Battle, Cornelius Ryan

10. Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints, Phyllis Diller [/b]

lovely treez

Goodness, don't tastes change??! I think there are also a lot of lesser known titles here because it's an American based site. When I look at the New York Times Bestseller lists I would only recognise about half the titles usually but they're excellent for finding interesting gems to add to your wishilst!!