1974

US F I C T I O N

1. Centennial, James A. Michener 574 copies on LT

2. Watership Down, Richard Adams 5,936 copies

3. Jaws, Peter Benchley 580 copies

4. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John Le Carré 1,064 copies

5. Something Happened, Joseph Heller 677 copies

6. The Dogs of War, Frederick Forsyth 387 copies

7. The Pirate, Harold Robbins 36 copies

8. I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Margaret Craven 410 copies

9. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, John H. Watson, M.D., Nicholas Meyer, editor 418 copies

10. The Fan Club, Irving Wallace 55 copies

N O N F I C T I O N

1. The Total Woman, Marabel Morgan 43 copies

2. All the President's Men, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward 1,131 copies

3. Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, Merle Miller 183 copies

4. More Joy: A Lovemaking Companion to The Joy of Sex, Alex Comfort 86 copies

5. Alistair Cooke's America, Alistair Cooke 263 copies

6. Tales of Power, Carlos A. Castaneda 320 copies

7. You Can Profit from a Monetary Crisis, Harry Browne 10 copies

8. All Things Bright and Beautiful, James Herriot 973 copies

9. The Bermuda Triangle, Charles Berlitz with J. Manson Valentine 133 copies

10. The Memory Book, Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas 184 copies

I loved those Watership Down bunnies. I read the book after, but my first real "date" was to see the movie Jaws.

I've read lots of these: 2, 3, 4, 6, & 9 in the fiction and 2, 5 & 8 in the non-fiction. With the current US economy the way it is, maybe You Can Profit from a Monetary Crisis ought to be brought back into print...

Watership Down in fiction, and All Things Bright and Beautiful in nonfiction.

I loved Watership Down, too, and still remember most of it (going "tharn" for instance), as well as All Things Bright and Beautiful. I've also read and enjoyed Plain Speaking, the Truman biography, and, to a lesser extent, Jaws and All the President's Men. I might have read the Carlos Castaneda ~ I remember reading one of his back then, but I am not sure which one.

I've got Alex Comfort's More Joy but didn't read it through (mostly looked at the drawings ~ lol). Also have Alastair Cooke's America and You Can Profit from a Monetary Crisis, but I don't think I read those through either.

I'd heard about The Seven Percent Solution but decided against reading it because I loved Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and didn't think anyone else could capture the magic.

I thought I Heard the Owl Call my Name was wonderful. I can see I misplaced my copy, because it is not in my LT catalog. It's the story of the spiritual yearning of an Anglican priest who has been posted to a native village deep in the forest of British Columbia.

I started reading Watership Down, years ago, but I don't remember finishing it.

I enjoyed Alastair Cooke's America, and think I even gave it as a gift to someone.

I even read the Bermuda Triangle. Even more, I had a dream about it.

Fiction #5 Something Happened is one of the few books I have never finished. I started reading it because I loved Catch-22, but was very disappointed.

Joseph Heller's Catch-22 sold 10,434, while Something happened, his second most popular volume in LT has only sold 683. He's almost only a one great work writer.

I remember reading Watership Down and trying to keep it a secret that a young boy was reading a book about rabbits.

We used Alistair Cooke's America in a college history class, probably because it's the shortest book of its kind.

Jaws!

I actually had to read I heard the owl call my name in 8th grade in South Africa for class. I really don't remember it very well.

That's the only one I have read.

Watership Down was very good, and All the President's Men was chilling. Never thought I would see another president to rival Nixon.

I have read Centennial (isn't this another one where Michener starts with the trilobites and c..r..a..w..l..s toward the present?), Jaws, Plain Speaking, and something or other by Castaneda.

ypfluke, I'm just curious where you got your 'sales' figures on both Catch-22 and Something Happened. There were probably at least 10,000 copies of Catch-22 sold during the first year after its publication.

All the President's Men and Plain Speaking.

While only having read Tales of the South Pacific, Hawaii, and The Source I actually like Michener's fictionalized history approach.

I am going to try to revive this thread with some updated LT statistics.

1. Centennial by James Michener now has 1511 copies in LT with 21 reviews and a 4.09 average rating.

2. Watership Down by Richard Adams now has 12,245 copies in LT with 192 reviews and 4.26 rating. (Has this now become a classic?)

3. Jaws by Peter Benchley now has 1533 copies on LT, with 53 revies and a 3.56 rating.

4. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre now has 2752 copies, with 56 reviews and a 4.06 rating.

5. Something Happened by Joseph Heller now has 1387 copies on LT, with 10 reviews and a rating of 3.41.

Oh! I just finished listening to the audio of Watership Down and found it as fresh & brilliant as when I read it first back in, I guess, 1974. I'd vote for it's being a classic.