A new tool (viewable on desktop only) released from Wordery allows users to discover which book took the top spot on the New York Times Bestseller list on the year they were born, along with how long the book spent at number one.
Do you know which song was number one the year you were born? Or what was the top news story of the year? How about the bestselling book? If you’re an avid reader and interested in finding out key insights into the year you were born, you can now discover which bestseller was topping the charts for readers around the world.
The New York Times Bestseller list is widely respected and regarded as the preeminent list of best-selling books. The list, compiled by editors became the leading best seller list for book professionals to monitor by the 1950s and continues to hold its esteem to this day.
The book that takes the top spot, spending the most amount of time at number one was ‘Hawaii’ by James A. Michener. The novel was published in 1959, the same year Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state and tells the history of the Hawaiian Islands from the creation of the isles to the time they became an American state, through the viewpoints of selected characters. Hawaii became a best seller in 1960 and stayed there for a grand total of 38 weeks.
JK Rowling also makes the list and if you were born in 1999, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban will be your book of the year, spending a total of ten weeks at number one. If JK Rowling herself was to use the interactive tool with her birth year 1965, the book that was number one at that time was also written by James A. Michener, this time with the title The Source. Also a historical novel, The Source transports the reader back thousands of years to the Holy Land. A tale of love, strength, and faith, The Source is a richly written saga that encompasses the history of Western civilization and the great religious and cultural ideas that have shaped our world.
The most recent bestseller appearing on the tool is James Patterson and Bill Clinton’s The President Is Missing, released in 2018. The crime thriller which keeps readers in classic Patterson suspense spent 6 weeks in the number one spot.
John Grisham is the author who has featured most frequently in the New York Times Bestseller list. His Novel Camino Island is the most recent spending 5 weeks as the New York Times Best Seller in 2017. His first appearance was in 1992 with the thriller novel The Pelican Brief which spend 12 weeks at number one. The average time spent at number one for the books dating back from 1931 to 2018 is 6 week with the popular genres historical fiction and romance.
So which book took the top spot the year you were born?
Barry Magennis, spokesperson for Wordery, comments: “It’s always fun to find out what was happening in the world the year you were born and knowing which novel your parents were likely to be reading throughout the first year of your life is quite fascinating. Not only that, if, like me, you find yourself asking ‘”what should I read next?” then this offers some great recommendations to help you figure out what book should be next on your reading list.”
