1987

ForumBestsellers over the Years

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1987

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1vpfluke
Bearbeitet: Jun. 16, 2008, 1:16 pm

Getting more current. I feel like I'm showing my age, as I haven't read any of these. I've put in parentheses what genre (from their tags) they are to keep them slightly straight in my head.

1. The Tommyknockers by Stpehen King, has 1,457 owners, 6 reviews. (horror)

2. Patriot Games by Tom Clancy, has 1,257 owners with 7 reviews. (espionage)

3. Kaleidoscope by Danielle Steel, has 99 owners (no reviews). (Romance) Her most popular novel at LT is The Gift.

4. Misery by Stephen King, has 1,884 owners with 15 reviews.

5. "Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories" by Garrison Keillor, has 377 owners and 2 reviews. (Humor)

6. Windmills of the Gods by Sidney Sheldon has 182 owners and 1 review. (Suspense) He is better known for The Stars Shine Down - 347 owners, 5 reviews.

7. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow has 593 owners and 2 reviews. (Legal thriller)

8. Fine Things by Danielle Steel has 90 owners (0 reviews). (Romance)

9. Heaven and Hell by John Jakes has 188 owners with 4 reviews. (Civil War)

10. The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King has 1,758 owners and 16 reviews. (Fantasy)

I should note that #12 this year is Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities, which ranked #11 in 1988. It has 1,723 owners and 21 reviews.

I am impressed that Stephen King appeared thrice in 1987, but I'm still not sure I will read him.

The only book I've read (maybe) is #14 2061: Odyssey Three by Arthur C Clarke, the oly science fiction on this list.

2drsol
Aug. 12, 2007, 12:12 pm

Of the top ten, I've only read the 3 Stephen King titles. I must have been in my horror phase in the late 80's.

3Bookmarque
Aug. 12, 2007, 1:15 pm

Have read the Kings and the Turow. Not the others.

4varielle
Aug. 15, 2007, 1:41 pm

I haven't read any of these either. Funny how some of the most popular books just don't age well. I did try Bonfire of the Vanities but got disgusted with all the loathsome characters and gave it up. I can still remember the scene with the judge spitting at the prisoners and the spittal hanging off the bars. Yuck, yuck, yuck, Eww!

5citygirl
Aug. 22, 2007, 2:11 pm

I read Patriot Games, it's the only Clancy I've ever read. It was okay I guess. I don't really remember the reading experience all that well.
Presumed Innocent, which I thought was really clever because you don't know whodunnit until the end, it's written in the first person, and the narrator is a suspect.
I really liked the Eyes of the Dragon because it wasn't horror and I thought just a really nice fantasy tale. I've read Bonfire of the Vanities, which I loved. Wolfe really knows how to make those loathsome characters pop. It's quite a trick when an author can get you really interested in what happens to really unsympathetic characters.

6geneg
Aug. 22, 2007, 11:16 pm

I feel so unconnected. I have not read nor do I have the desire to read a single one of these books. What's wrong with me?

7varielle
Aug. 23, 2007, 8:57 am

The movie version of Misery was excellently done. That was the best thing James Caan had done since The Godfather.

8vpfluke
Aug. 23, 2007, 12:26 pm

geneg:

As the starter of these threads, I feel almost as unconnected. I think LT's list of the most common books reflects where we are better than thhe old best seller lists. I didn't know that when I began these threads.

I have found some old classics in some of the earlier years.

I think if the best-sller list covered more than one year, say a five year span, we might get a better handle on what people read, and, at least, somewhat continue to read.

9varielle
Bearbeitet: Dez. 13, 2007, 10:04 am

US Nonfiction 1987

1. Time Flies, Bill Cosby 114 copies on LT

2. Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer, Peter Wright with Paul Greengrass 304 copies

3. Family: The Ties That Bind . . . and Gag!, Erma Bombeck 138 copies

4. Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987, Bob Woodward 234 copies

5. A Day in the Life of America, Rick Smolan and David Cohen 66 copies

6. The Great Depression of 1990, Ravi Batra 16 copies

7. It's All in the Playing, Shirley MacLaine 30 copies

8. Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill, Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. with William Novak 74 copies

9. The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American, Jeff Smith 154 copies

10. The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom 1,020 copies

I have The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American and have oftened bemoaned the fall of the Frug. I tried to read The Spycatcher because it was banned and Britain and even Rumpole of the Bailey made a joke about it on the TV version, but it was just tooooo boring.

Interesting that the one in 10th place has the most copies still hanging around on LT.

10DaynaRT
Dez. 13, 2007, 10:16 am

Ditto on the Frug love.

11raggedtig
Dez. 13, 2007, 10:49 am

Guess this time was when I started really getting into reading. I've read 3 of these: Misery, Kaleidoscope, and Windmills of the Gods.

12vpfluke
Dez. 13, 2007, 11:06 am

Regarding # 6 on the non-fiction list, there was no depression in 1990, the downward spin in 1987 was the most traumatic thing of the 80's I think, and Ravi Batra projected even worse things which didn't happen. Hence the paucity of copies of his book(s), i.e. the bogus problem.

13MarianV
Dez. 13, 2007, 12:01 pm

#10 can be considered a classic. Much of what he wrote in 1987 is even more true in 2007.
I always looked foreward to Erma Bombeck's newest book. Her take on the American family of the 70's & 80's was right on. Not too long ago, I picked up one of her earlier books, one that had sent me into fits of laughter at the time. But our society has changed. What was humor then is nostalgia now. American family has changed, & I don't think it's for the better.(O.K. I'm a bit of a curmudgeon) But my children have more problems than I ever had to face & I worry about the world we are passing to our grandchildren.

14geneg
Dez. 13, 2007, 1:46 pm

The Godfather of my son was raised in Columbus Ohio and lived next door to Ms. Bombeck and played with her kids, ate her cookies, etc. This was when she wrote a local column for the Columbus paper. Before she became famous.

15aviddiva
Dez. 17, 2007, 12:49 am

I've read 9 & 10., but none of the fiction. I miss the Frug, too.

17keren7
Apr. 14, 2008, 4:02 pm

Ive read Misery and the Tommy Knockers.

18geneg
Apr. 14, 2008, 4:50 pm

I thought Tammy's Knockers were pretty good, too. (Sorry, I just couldn't resist).

19adpaton
Jul. 14, 2010, 3:06 am

An impressive year for Stephen King but, in his heyday, fans - and I counted myself among them - would read anything that had his name on it: personally, I would rather read even a sanskrit dictionary than revisit The Tommyknockers. I believe he had an addicition problem and can only assum he was under the influence of alcohol plus a host of illegal substances when he penned this drivel. Its well-written of course - goes without saying, it's Stephen King and he always writes well - but it's still drivel.
I liked The Eyes of the Dragon but I was in my 20s when I read it and I think the book was designed for younger readers; I really loved Misery and was impressed by both the story and the typographic devices. A wonderful book - hard to believe it was from the same man who bought us Tommyknockers...

20rocketjk
Aug. 6, 2010, 3:15 pm

I have Spycatcher and Man of the House on my shelf, awaiting my attention. One of these days . . .

21vpfluke
Aug. 6, 2010, 7:21 pm

The Touchstone for Patriot Games in Message 1 no longer works. 3 years later it now has 3,320 owners and 26 reviews in Lt. Are people reviewing more often?