Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Wonderful Wednesday: New York Times Bestsellers on the Day You Were Born

Check out this fun website, where you can look up the New York Times bestsellers (fiction and non-fiction) from the week you were born.  Here's my list (July 17, 1974):

Watership Down1 WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams
2 JAWS by Peter Benchley
3 CASHELMARA by Susan Howatch
4 TINKERTAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY by John le Carré
5 THE FAN CLUB by Irving Wallace
6 THE DOGS OF WAR by Frederick Forsyth
7 THE SNARE OF THE HUNTER by Helen MacInnes
8 BURR by Gore Vidal
9 I HEARD THE OWL CALL MY NAME by Margaret Craven
10 IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK by James Baldwin

A little known fact is that the fiction bestseller from the week you are born has a great deal to say about the sensitive, burgeoning personality you will have as you grow up.  For me, the best selling story of a psychic rabbit prophet together with his closest friends on an epic fantasy journey... well... it's pretty easy to see that this book is clearly responsible for my current personality and preferences in life.

Now... you do it!  Leave your top bestseller and what that says about you in the comments!

8 comments:

  1. Mine is 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' by John le Carré. Which is pretty accurate because I often tire of lying & deception and I prefer sitting by a fireplace in a comfortable chair rather than being outside in the winter.

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  2. The Pelican Brief, by John Grisham. Uhhh.... I like weird underwear?

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  3. Mine, O Captain, was The Caine Mutiny.

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  4. The day YOU were born, I was taking my finals for my second year of IBS.

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  5. Anonymous9:25 AM

    Well, I don't get a book with LOST fan hipster cred like "Watership Down". Instead I have a relatively predictable international-espionage/hidden-code spy novel in "The Key to Rebecca". The title makes it sound kind of likely a schmoltzy romance novel akin to "The Notebook", but instead hidden inside is a spy novel. A spy novel hidden inside something that sounds like a Harlequin about a secret code hidden inside a book called Rebecca.

    I won't claim to be a psychoanalyst - although pastors sometimes have to be - but if I was going to try to compare this book and myself I'd make the connection between the multiple layers and themes of hidden-ness in the novel as comparative to what life as a pastor often feels like: having to have multiple layers and levels of meaning and existence with very few ever taking the time to get the real you, and instead just settling for knowing the guy who preaches for 30 minutes a week on a platform in front of a few hundred people.

    ... or maybe I'm going too deep with this. ;-)

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  6. "Trinity" Leon Uris

    From Amazon Product Description:
    Trinity is a saga of glories and defeats, triumphs and tragedies, lived by a young Catholic rebel and the beautiful and valiant Protestant girl who defied her heritage to join him. Leon Uris has painted a masterful portrait of a beleaguered people divided by religion and wealth--impoverished Catholic peasants pitted against a Protestant aristocracy wielding power over life and death.

    I think there has been a mistake! I am a Protestant peasant...

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  7. Anonymous6:59 PM

    I haven't read either of the top sellers on my list, but I did notice that PERESTROIKA made the list. While the book itself didn't have a premonition on my life, it was the title of Angels In America Part 2, which says something there.

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  8. pongboy11:05 AM

    Since this is the "Oscar buzz" time of the year where we all like to speculate which celebrities we want to make fun off on Oscar night, I'm going to alter the rules a bit:

    The Academy Award for best picture of the year (of my birth) goes to "The Sound of Music." Theme: Love conquers the bad guys (and it helps if you can sing & dance)! I've always been a firm believer of that! :D

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