The end of the year always puts me in a nostalgic mood. I am reminiscing about some of the #1 best sellers of the NY Times since the list began in 1942.
The Robe, a religious novel, topped the charts in 1942. Then we have the best sellers that were considered risqué for their time: Forever Amber in 1944. Peyton Place was in everyone’s mother’s underwear drawer in 1956. It never reached #1, but was on the list for 59 straight weeks. I read this when I was nine years old. Valley of the Dolls came out in 1966. Looking for Mr Goodbar, 1975, kept me out of singles’ bars forever.
Love Story, 1970, was such a sappy story that librarians made fun of it, but read it anyway; the same with Bridges of Madison County in 1993.
There are a few authors that repeatedly reach the #1 spot with almost every book they publish: Janet Evanovich, Robert Ludlum, Danielle Steel, Steven King, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Mary Higgins Clark. In 2010 James Patterson hit the top of the charts with four different titles.
But there are also those great books that will always be #1 best sellers because they have since become classics: The Confessions of Nat Turner in 1967; East of Eden in 1952; Smiley’s People in 1980; Lolita in 1958; Doctor Zhivago in 1958; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in 1944; or Andersonville in 1956. I’m surprised that To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960 never hit the top of the charts, though it has won many awards and is among the best selling books of all time—30 million.
If you’re downtown at the Central Library, come by the Fiction department’s display of these treasures of years past. You can also browse current New York Times bestselling titles in our catalog (you can limit by children’s or adults, hardcover or paperback, fiction or nonfiction), and link directly to books to read reviews and place holds.
~ Beth K., Central Library
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