Here are the Biggest Nonfiction Bestsellers of the Last 100 Years
(And the Books We Remember Instead)
The best-selling nonfiction of the year:
1. Charles Kuralt, A Life on the Road
2. Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns, The Civil War
3. Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Heritage: Recipes You Should Have Gotten from Your Grandmother
4. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
5. Charles J. Givens, Financial Self-Defense: How To Win the Fight for Financial Freedom
6. John Bradshaw, Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child
7. Charles J. Givens, Wealth Without Risk: How To Develop a Personal Fortune Without Going Out on a Limb
8. Bo Jackson and Dick Schaap, Bo Knows Bo
9. Ronald Reagan, An American Life: An Autobiography
10. John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene, Megatrends 2000: Ten New Directions for the 1990s
Also published that year:
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble
Janet Malcolm, The Journalist and the Murderer
Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth
The best-selling nonfiction of the year:
1. Katharine Hepburn, Me: Stories of My Life
2. Kitty Kelley, Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography
3. Robert Fulghum, Uh-Oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door
4. Oliver North with William Novak, Under Fire: An American Story
5. Derek Humphry, Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying
6. Erma Bombeck, When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time to Go Home
7. Charles J. Givens, More Wealth Without Risk
8. James B. Stewart, Den of Thieves
9. Bill Cosby, Childhood
10. Charles J. Givens, Financial Self-Defense
Also published that year:
Jung Chang, Wild Swans
Art Spiegelman, Maus II
The best-selling nonfiction of the year:
1. Rush Limbaugh, The Way Things Ought To Be
2. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, It Doesn’t Take a Hero: The Autobiography
3. Naura Hayden, How to Satisfy a Woman Every Time
4. James Herriot, Every Living Thing
5. Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love
6. Sam Walton, Sam Walton: Made in America
7. Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story
8. David McCullough, Truman
9. Gail Sheehy, Silent Passage
10. Madonna, Sex
Also published that year:
Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man
Alex Kotlowitz, There Are No Children Here
The best-selling nonfiction of the year:
1. Rush Limbaugh, See, I Told You So
2. Howard Stern, Private Parts
3. Jerry Seinfeld, Seinlanguage
4. Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor, Embraced by the Light
5. Deepak Chopra, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind
6. Susan Powter, Stop the Insanity
7. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves
8. John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women are From Venus
9. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, The Hidden Life of Dogs
10. Harvey Penick with Bud Shrake, And If You Play Golf, You’re My Friend
Also published that year:
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics
The best-selling nonfiction of the year:
1. Rosie Daley, In the Kitchen with Rosie
2. John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women are From Venus
3. John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope
4. N.E. Thing Enterprises, Magic Eye I
5. William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues
6. N.E. Thing Enterprises, Magic Eye II
7. Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor, Embraced by the Light
8. Tim Allen, Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man
9. Paul Reiser, Couplehood
10. N.E. Thing Enterprises, Magic Eye III
Also published that year:
John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Lucy Grealy, Autobiography of a Face
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation
The best-selling nonfiction of the year:
1. John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women are From Venus
2. Colin Powell, My American Journey
3. Howard Stern, Miss America
4. Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
5. Bill Gates, The Road Ahead
6. Charles Kuralt, Charles Kuralt’s America
7. John Gray, Mars and Venus in the Bedroom
8. Newt Gingrich, To Renew America
9. Ellen DeGeneres, My Point . . . and I Do Have One
10. William J. Bennett, The Moral Compass
Also published that year:
Mary Karr, The Liars’ Club
Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father
The best-selling nonfiction of the year:
1. Oprah Winfrey and Bob Greene, Make the Connection
2. John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women are From Venus
3. Scott Adams, The Dilbert Principle
4. Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance
5. Barry Sears with Bill Lawren, The Zone
6. Dennis Rodman, Bad As I Wanna Be
7. Christopher Darden, In Contempt
8. Walter Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life
9. Scott Adams, Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook
10. Ekaterina Gordeeva with E. M. Swift, My Sergei: A Love Story
Also published that year:
Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild
Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes
William H. Gass, Finding a Form
The best-selling nonfiction of the year:
1. Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes
2. Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance
3. John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
4. Kitty Kelley, The Royals
5. Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ether Becker, The Joy of Cooking
6. Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story
7. Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air
8. Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God, Book 1
9. John Gray, Men are from Mars, Women are From Venus
10. Andrew Weil, Eight Weeks to Optimum Health
Also published that year:
Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel
Geoff Dyer, Out of Sheer Rage
David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again
The best-selling nonfiction of the year:
1. Suze Orman, The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom
2. Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation
3. H. Leighton Steward, Morrison C. Bethea, Sam S. Andrews, and Luis A. Balart, Sugar Busters!
4. Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
5. The Guinness Book of Records 1999
6. James Van Praagh, Talking to Heaven
7. Sarah Ban Breathnach, Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self
8. Iyanla Vanzant, In the Meantime
9. Jimmy Buffett, A Pirate Looks at Fifty
10. Cherie Carter-Scott, If Life Is a Game These Are the Rules
Also published that year:
Jo Ann Beard, Boys of My Youth
Bill Bryson, Notes from a Big Country
Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind
The best-selling nonfiction of the year:
1. Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
2. Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation
3. Guinness World Records 2000 Millennium Edition
4. Frank McCourt, ‘Tis
5. Spencer Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese?
6. Suze Orman, The Courage to be Rich
7. Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation Speaks
8. H. Leighton Steward, Morrison C. Bethea, Sam S. Andrews, and Luis A. Balart, Sugar Busters!
9. Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, The Art of Happiness
10. Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster, The Century
Also published that year:
Samuel R. Delany, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe
Naomi Klein, No Logo
