Your use of the word “still” means to me, that you believe you are a little bit younger than me. It could be that you’re slightly older and Chesapeake was on the rise to #1 when you were born. Either way, we can’t be more than a couple of months apart at most.
Here’s the full list for me:
NYT Best Sellers for Week Ending 24/12/1978
Fiction
1 CHESAPEAKE James A. Michener author info
2 WAR AND REMEMBRANCE Herman Wouk
3 SECOND GENERATION Howard Fast
4 FOOLS DIE Mario Puzo
5 THE FAR PAVILIONS M.M. Kaye
6 THE SILMARILLION J.R.R. Tolkien
7 EVERGREEN Belva Plain
8 BRIGHT FLOWS THE RIVER Taylor Caldwell
9 ILLUSIONS Richard Bach
10 PRELUDE TO TERROR Helen MacInnes
11 THE EMPTY COPPER SEA John D. MacDonald
12 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER John Cheever
13 EYE OF THE NEEDLE Ken Follett
14 WIFEY Judy Blume
15 SCRUPLES Judith Krantz
Non-Fiction
1 MOMMIE DEAREST Christina Crawford
2 GNOMES text Wil Huygen, illustrated Rien Poortvliet
3 AMERICAN CAESAR William Manchester
4 A DISTANT MIRROR Barbara W. Tuchman
6 FAERIES described and illustrated Brian Froud and Alan Lee
7 IN SEARCH OF HISTORY Theodore H. White
8 THE COMPLETE BOOK OF RUNNING James F. Fixx
9 THE COUNTRY DIARY OF AN EDWARDIAN LADY Edith Holden
10 JACKIE OH! by Kitty Kelley. (Holt $14.95.)
11 JULIA CHILD & COMPANY Julia Child
12 ROBERT KENNEDY AND HIS TIMES Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
13 THE ANN LANDERS ENCYCLOPEDIA A TO Z Ann Landers.
14 A TIME FOR TRUTH William E. Simon
15 TUTANKHAMUN: The Untold Story Thomas Hoving
Fiction
1 ADVISE AND CONSENT Allen Drury
2 HAWAII James Michener
3 POOR NO MORE Robert Ruark
4 DEAR AND GLORIOUS PHYSICIAN Taylor Caldwell
5 THE WAR LOVER John Hersey
6 THE DARKNESS AND THE DAWN Thomas B. Costain
7 EXODUS Leon Uris
8 THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE Morrs L. West
9 THE UGLY AMERICAN William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick
10 THE MANSION William Faulkner
11 THE CAVE Robert Penn Warren
12 TOO MANY GHOSTS Paul Gallico
13 RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE Grace Metalious
14 THE THIRTEENTH APOSTLE Eugene Vale
15 THRUSH GREEN “Miss Read”
16 THE BREAKING POINT Daphne du Maurier
Non-Fiction
1 ACT ONE Moss Hart
2 FOLK MEDICINE Deforest Clinton Jarvis
3 THIS IS MY GOD Herman Wouk
4 THE LONGEST DAY Cornelius Ryan
5 THE ARMADA Garrett Mattingly
6 THE STATUS SEEKERS Vance Packard
7 THE JOY OF MUSIC Leonard Bernstein
8 FOR 2c PLAIN Harry Golden author info
9 THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
10 MY WICKED WICKED WAYS, Errol Flynn
11 GROUCHO AND ME Groucho Marx
12 TRIUMPH IN THE WEST Arthur Bryant
13 MAY THIS HOUSE BE SAFE FROM TIGERS Alexander King
14 THE APE IN ME Cornelia Otis Skinner
15 DIPLOMAT Charles Wheeler Thayer
16 GENTLEMEN SCHOLARS AND SCOUNDRELS (fiction 2 & , Horace Knowles
I’ve only read four of them (fiction 2 & 8 and non-fiction 4 & 9).
NYT Best Sellers for Week Ending 30/08/1959 (my birthdate)
Fiction 1 EXODUS Leon Uris
Fiction 2 LADY CHATTERLY’S LOVER D.H. Lawrence
Fiction 3 THE UGLY AMERICAN William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick
Fiction 4 DEAR AND GLORIOUS PHYSICIAN Taylor Caldwell
Fiction 5 DOCTOR ZHIVAGO Boris Pasternak
Fiction 6 ADVISE AND CONSENT Allen Drury
Fiction 7 CELIA GARTH Gwen Bristow
Fiction 8 THE ART OF LLEWELLYN JONES Paul Hyde Bonner
Fiction 9 CALIFORNIA STREET Niven Busch
Fiction 10 THE TENTS OF WICKEDNESS Peter De Vries
Fiction 11 LOLITA Vladimir Nabokov
Fiction 12 THE YOUNG TITAN F. Van Wyck Mason
Fiction 13 THE LIGHT INFANTRY BALL Hamilton Basso
Fiction 14 NINE COACHES WAITING Mary Stewart
Fiction 15 THE CHINESE BOX Katherine Wigmore Eyre
Fiction 16 LORENA Frank G. Slaughter
Non-Fiction 1 THE STATUS SEEKERS Vance Packard
Non-Fiction 2 FOR 2C PLAIN Harry Golden
Non-Fiction 3 THE YEARS WITH ROSS James Thurber
The first three fiction works, plus #5 and #11, are pretty well-known today. Also, we had a copy of #6 on the family bookshelves when I was growing up.
Fiction 1 THE GODFATHER Mario Puzo
Fiction 2 THE HOUSE ON THE STRAND Daphne du Maurier
Fiction 3 THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN John Fowles
Fiction 4 IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE Rumer Godden
Fiction 5 THE INHERITORS Harold Robbins
Fiction 6 PUPPET ON A CHAIN Alistair MacLean
Fiction 7 FIRE FROM HEAVEN Mary Renault
Fiction 8 THE SEVEN MINUTES Irving Wallace
Fiction 9 THE SHIVERING SANDS Victoria Holt
Fiction 10 THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN Michael Crichton
Non-Fiction 1 THE SELLING OF THE PRESIDENT 1968 Joe McGinniss
Non-Fiction 2 THE PETER PRINCIPLE Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull
Non-Fiction 3 PRESENT AT THE CREATION Dean Acheson
Non-Fiction 5 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS Antonia Fraser
Non-Fiction 6 THE COLLAPSE OF THE THIRD REPUBLIC William L. Shirer
Non-Fiction 7 AMBASSADOR’S JOURNAL John Kenneth Galbraith
Non-Fiction 8 PRIME TIME Alexander Kendrick
Non-Fiction 9 THE GRAHAM KERR COOKBOOK the Galloping Gourmet and Hubert
9 THE GRAHAM KERR COOKBOOK, the Galloping Gourmet and Hubert Sieben
Non-Fiction 10 MY LIFE WITH JACQUELINE KENNEDY Mary Barelli Gallagher
The only of these I have actually read is The Andromeda Strain. I’ve never read The Godfather.
Whenever I type in my birthday it shows a screen saying that I typed in November 2nd, which is definitely not when I was born, and it says “Sorry, no bestsellers listed for this week”. Oh well.
Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, a book I’ve read and did not understand one word of, was the top fiction best seller. The Atkins thing was non-fiction, followed by The Joy of Sex.
Fiction -
[ul]
[li]THE GODFATHER Mario Puzo[/li][li]THE LOVE MACHINE Jacqueline Susann[/li][li]THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN Michael Crichton[/li][li]PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT Philip Roth[/li][li]NAKED CAME THE STRANGER Penelope Ashe[/li][li]THE PRETENDERS Gladys Rockmore Davis[/li][li]THE PROMISE Chaim Potok[/li][li]THE HOUSE ON THE STRAND Daphne du Maurier[/li][li]A PLACE IN THE COUNTRY Sarah Gainham[/li][li]IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE Rumer Godden[/li][/ul]
Non-Fiction -
[ul]
[li]THE PETER PRINCIPLE Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull[/li][li]THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER Gay Talese[/li][li]MY LIFE WITH JACQUELINE KENNEDY Mary Barelli Gallagher[/li][li]THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT 1968 Theodore H. White[/li][li]MY LIFE AND PROPHECIES Jeane Dixon[/li][li]BETWEEN PARENT & TEENAGER Haim G. Ginott[/li][li]CAPTIVE CITY Ovid Demaris[/li][li]THE DOCTOR’S QUICK INCHES OFF DIET Irwin Maxwell Stillman[/li][li]JENNIE Ralph G. Martin[/li][/ul]
Fiction
1- Cujo - Stephen King
2- Nobel House - James Clavell
3- The Third Deadly Sin - Lawrence Sanders
4- Gorkey Park - Martin Cruz Smith
5- The Glitter Dome - Joseph Wambaugh
6- Goodbye - Janette, Harold Robbins
7- Trade Wind M.M. Kaye
8- The Cardinal Sins - Andrew M Greeley
9- The Clowns of God - Morris West
10- God Emperor of Dune - Frank Herbert
Non-Fiction
1- The Beverly HIlls Diet - Judy Mazel
2- The Lord God Made them All - James Herriot
3- Never-Say-Diet Book - Richard Simmons
4- Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life - Miss Piggy as told by Henry Beard
5- The Cinderella Complex - Colette Dowling
6- Theory Z - William G. Ouchi
7- The Hite Report on Male Sexuality - Shere Hite
8- Living Alone and Liking it! Lynn Shahan
9- How to Make Love to a Man - Alexandra Penney
10- The Eagle’s Gift - Carlos Castaneda
Out of all of those I have only read Cujo.
Here is my corrected list. Somehow I put in 964 instead of 1964. How this got to be 1969 I don’t know.
Fiction 1 HERZOG Saul Bellow
Fiction 2 THE RECTOR OF JUSTIN Louis Auchincloss
Fiction 3 THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD John le Carré
Fiction 4 THIS ROUGH MAGIC Mary Stewart
Fiction 5 CANDY Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg
Fiction 6 JULIAN Gore Vidal
Fiction 7 YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE Ian Fleming
Fiction 8 ARMEGEDDON Leon Uris
Fiction 9 THE MAN Irving Wallace
Fiction 10 A MOTHER’S KISSES Bruce Jay Friedman
Non-Fiction 1 REMINISCENCES Douglas MacArthur
Non-Fiction 2 HARLOW Irving Shulman
Non-Fiction 3 A MOVEABLE FEAST Ernest Hemingway
Non-Fiction 4 MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY Charles Chaplin
Non-Fiction 5 THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT David Wise and Thomas B. Ross
Non-Fiction 6 A TRIBUTE TO JOHN F. KENNEDY Pierre Salinger and Sander Vanocur
Non-Fiction 7 THE ITALIANS Luigi Barzini
Non-Fiction 8 THE KENNEDY WIT Bill Adler
Non-Fiction 9 MISSISSIPPI: THE CLOSED SOCIETY James W. Silver
Non-Fiction 10 FOUR DAYS U.P.I. and American Heritage Magazine
Ugh, #4 is Atlas Shrugged, which I haven’t read, nor will I likely ever unless stuck in some remote country with no other reading material.
However, On the Beach was #9, which was pretty good, and the only book I’ve read on my list. Back then, I guess there were only 3 books on the non-riction best seller list.
Zebra. I’m guessing that in 964, the best sellers were the Bible and the Qur’an.