New York Times bestsellers for the week I was born

Thanks to biblioz.com, here are the fiction and non-fiction bestsellers for the week ending April 2, 1972:

Fiction

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
Wheels by Alex Hailey
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
The Assasins by Elia Kazan
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
The Word by Irving Wallace
The Blue Knight by Joseph Wambaugh
Message From Malaga by Helen MacInnes
The Betsy by Harold Robbins
The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins

Nonfiction

The Game of Foxes by Ladislas Farago
Eleanor and Franklyn by Joseph P. Lash
The Defense Never Rests by F. Lee Bailey
Tracey and Hepburn by Garson Kanin
Bury Me at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
The Moon's a Balloon by David Niven
Bring Me a Unicorn by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The Double-Cross System by J. C. Masterman
Souls on Fire by Elie Weisel
Buying Country Property by Herbert R. Moral

What fascinates me most about these lists is the nonfiction part. No self-help books, as far as I can tell. A few celebrity book, of course, but no books by politicians trying to sell themselves. Our taste in fiction has stayed generally the same, but our taste for nonfiction has clearly gone downhill in the 39 intervening years.

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