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What were the Most Popular Non-Fiction Titles in 2002?

About this list.

For a different look at what people read, try Most Popular Authors, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, or other years' Most popular non-fiction titles: 2004. 2003, 2002, 2001

  • The World Book encyclopedia
  • Seldom disappointed : a memoir / Tony Hillerman
  • John Adams / David McCullough
  • Turn left at the Sleeping Dog : scripting the Santa Fe legend, 1920-1955 / John Pen La Farge
  • Stupid white men-- and other sorry excuses for the state of the nation! / Michael Moore
  • Theodore Rex / Edmund Morris
  • Star light, star bright / Katherine Stone
  • An open heart : practicing compassion in everyday life / by the Dalai Lama
  • Madam Millie : bordellos from Silver City to Ketchikan / Max Evans
  • Seabiscuit : an American legend / Laura Hillenbrand
  • Nickel and dimed : on (not) getting by in America / Barbara Ehrenreich
  • A song flung up to heaven / Maya Angelou
  • Anger : wisdom for cooling the flames / Thich Nhat Hanh
  • The universe in a nutshell / Stephen Hawking
  • Sacred contracts : awakening your divine potential / Caroline Myss
  • Me talk pretty one day / David Sedaris
  • A child called "it" : an abused child's journey from victim to victor / David J. Pelzer
  • The wisdom of menopause : creating physical and emotional health and healing during the change / Christiane Northrup
  • Fodor's ... Mexico
  • Adobe angels : the ghosts of Santa Fe and Taos / Antonio R. Garcez
  • Sacagawea's nickname : essays on the American West / Larry McMurtry
  • Blinded by the right : the conscience of an ex-conservative / David Brock
  • I spy fun house : a book of picture riddles / photographs by Walter Wick ; riddles by Jean Marzollo
  • Stolen lives : twenty years in a desert jail / Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi
  • Perpetual war for perpetual peace : how we got to be so hated / Gore Vidal
  • Anatomy of the spirit : the seven stages of power and healing / Caroline Myss
  • Band of brothers : E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest / Stephen E. Ambrose
  • Fast food nation : the dark side of the all-American meal / Eric Schlosser
  • 9-11 / by Noam Chomsky
  • New Mexico gardener's guide : the what, where, when, how & why of gardening in New Mexico / Judith Phillips
  • Lucky man : a memoir / Michael J. Fox
  • Santa Fe style / Christine Mather and Sharon Woods
  • The Best American poetry
  • Self matters : creating your life from the inside out / Phillip C. McGraw
  • What went wrong? : Western impact and Middle Eastern reponse / Bernard Lewis
  • Within adobe walls : a Santa Fe journal : selections from the Charlotte White journals / edited by Corinne P. Sze
  • The road to wealth : a comprehensive guide to your money : everything you need to know in good and bad times / Suze Orman
  • Bias : a CBS insider exposes how the media distort the news / Bernard Goldberg
  • The heart of the soul : emotional awareness / Gary Zukav and Linda Francis
  • Spanish pathways : readings in the history of Hispanic New Mexico / Marc Simmons
  • Men are from Mars, women are from Venus : a practical guide for improving communication and getting what you want in your relationships / John Gray
  • Coming home to eat : the pleasures and politics of local foods / Gary Paul Nabhan
  • The botany of desire : a plant's-eye view of the world / Michael Pollan
  • How to practice : the way to a meaningful life / His Holiness the Dalai Lama ; translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins
  • Galileo's daughter : a historical memoir of science, faith, and love / Dava Sobel
  • The four agreements : a practical guide to personal freedom / Miguel Ruiz
  • Every breath you take : a true story of obsession, revenge, and murder / Ann Rule
  • Ghost soldiers : the forgotten epic story of World War II's most dramatic mission / Hampton Sides
  • Atlas of the Celtic world / John Haywood
  • Fire / Sebastian Junger
  • Bad blood / Lorna Sage
  • Eat right 4 your type : the individualized diet solution to staying healthy, living longer & achieving your ideal weight / Peter J. D'Adamo, with Catherine Whitney
  • Tales of a female nomad : living at large in the world / Rita Golden Gelman
  • Warrior women : an archaeologist's search for history's hidden heroines / Jeannine Davis-Kimball with Mona Behan
  • Personal history / Katharine Graham
  • Traveling on the edge : journeys in the footsteps of Graham Greene / Julia Llewellyn Smith
  • Let's go. Mexico
  • A beautiful mind : a biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, 1994 / Sylvia Nasar
  • Adventures with Ed : a portrait of Abbey / Jack Loeffler
  • Blues lessons : a novel / Robert Hellenga
  • Facing Southwest : the life & houses of John Gaw Meem / Chris Wilson ; photography by Robert Reck
  • When things fall apart : heart advice for difficult times / Pema Chodron
  • The myth of Santa Fe : creating a modern regional tradition / Chris Wilson
  • Roadside geology of New Mexico / Halka Chronic
  • Sailing alone around the room : new and selected poems / Billy Collins:
  • The sweet hell inside : a family history / Edward Ball
  • In the shadow of Los Alamos : selected writings of Edith Warner / edited by Patrick Burns
  • Beyond the last village : a journey of discovery in Asia's forbidden wilderness / Alan Rabinowitz
  • American son : a portrait of John F. Kennedy, Jr. / Richard Blow
  • Holy war, Inc. : inside the secret world of Osama bin Laden / Peter L. Bergen
  • A heartbreaking work of staggering genius / by Dave Eggers
  • The healthy kitchen : recipes for a better body, life, and spirit / by Rosie Daley and Andrew Weil ; photographs by Eric Stud and tk
  • The seven habits of highly effective people : restoring the character ethic / Stephen R. Covey
  • Pie Town woman : the hard life and good times of a New Mexico homesteader / Joan Myers
  • The power of now : a guide to spiritual enlightenment / Eckhart Tolle
  • The olive farm : a memoir of life, love, and olive oil in the south of France / Carol Drinkwater
  • Savage beauty : the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay / Nancy Milford
  • Naked / David Sedaris
  • I spy fantasy : a book of picture riddles / photographs by Walter Wick ; riddles by Jean Marzollo
  • Day hikes in the Santa Fe area / by the Santa Fe Group of the Sierra Club
  • Profiles in courage for our time / introduced and edited by Caroline Kennedy
  • Kitchen confidential : adventures in the culinary underbelly / Anthony Bourdain
  • The future of life / Edward O. Wilson
  • Ancient Egypt / written by George Hart
  • Guns, germs, and steel : the fates of human societies / Jared Diamond
  • A convenient spy : Wen Ho Lee and the politics of nuclear espionage / Dan Stober and Ian Hoffman
  • The Calvin and Hobbes lazy Sunday book : a collection of Sunday Calvin and Hobbes cartoons / by Bill Watterson
  • Falling up : poems and drawings / by Shel Silverstein
  • Horse / written by Juliet Clutton-Brock
  • Learning to fall : the blessings of an imperfect life / Philip Simmons
  • Out there somewhere / Simon J. Ortiz
  • My visit to the dinosaurs / by Aliki
  • This cold heaven : seven seasons in Greenland / Gretel Ehrlich
  • Windows XP Home Edition! : I didn't know you could do that-- / Sandra Hardin Gookin
  • The Lexus and the olive tree / Thomas L. Friedman
  • Positively 4th street : the lives and times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina / David Hajdu
  • The final days : the last, desperate abuses of power by the Clinton White House / Barbara Olson
  • Fodor's ... Great Britain
  • Dr. Atkins' age-defying diet revolution / Robert C. Atkins with Sheila Buff
  • Chicken soup for the writer's soul : stories to open the heart and rekindle the spirit of writers / [compiled by] Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Bud Gardner
  • Fodor's ... Italy
  • Blackbird : a childhood lost and found / Jennifer Lauck
  • Blue gold : the fight to stop the corporate theft of the world's water / Maude Barlow, Tony Clarke
  • El mundo de los ninos
  • Reviving Ophelia : saving the selves of adolescent girls / Mary Pipher
  • The masks of God / Joseph Campbell
  • Santa Fe, a pictorial history / by John Sherman
  • Fodor's ... Hawaii
  • I spy Christmas : a book of picture riddles / photographs by Walter Wick ; riddles by Jean Marzollo
  • The facts of life : and other dirty jokes / Willie Nelson
  • Answers : discussions with Western Buddhists / by The Dalai Lama
  • Don't let's go to the dogs tonight : an African childhood / Alexandra Fuller
  • Fodor's ... Spain
  • Bonelight : ruin and grace in the new Southwest / Mary Sojourner
  • Sylvia Browne's book of dreams / Sylvia Browne ; written with Lindsay Harrison
  • Small wonder / Barbara Kingsolver
  • The natural : the misunderstood presidency of Bill Clinton / Joe Klein
  • The straw bale house / Athena Swentzell Steen ... [et al.]
  • Loving what is : four questions that can change your life / Byron Katie written with Stephen Mitchell
  • Midsummer snowballs / Andy Goldsworthy ; introduction by Judith Collins
  • Founding brothers : the revolutionary generation / Joseph J. Ellis
  • Dr. Atkins' new diet revolution / Robert C. Atkins:
  • From hardtack to home fries : an uncommon history of American cooks and meals / Barbara Haber:
  • The 9 steps to financial freedom / Suze Orman:
  • I spy extreme challenger : a book of picture riddles / photographs by Walter Wick ; riddles by Jean Marzollo:
  • The pirate hunter : the true story of Captain Kidd / Richard Zacks:
  • Take it from me! : life's a struggle but you can win / Erin Brockovich with Marc Eliot:
  • Legend of the rainbow warriors / Steven McFadden ; invocation by Dhyani Ywahoo:
  • One scandalous story : Clinton, Lewinsky, and thirteen days that tarnished American journalism / Marvin Kalb:
  • The mastery of love : a practical guide to the art of relationship / Miguel Ruiz:
  • Monarch : the life and reign of Elizabeth II / Robert Lacey:
  • The poet and the murderer : a true story of literary crime and the art of forgery / Simon Worrall:
  • Political fictions / Joan Didion:
  • Turn your passion into profits / by Janet Allon ; and the editors of Victoria magazine:
  • Mary Colter, architect of the Southwest / Arnold Berke ; color photographs by Alexander Vertikoff:
  • Southwestern landscaping with native plants / by Judith Phillips
  • The summer of a dormouse / John Mortimer
  • Walking with beasts : a prehistoric safari / written by Tim Haines ; picture designer Daren Horley
  • Make peace with anyone : breakthrough strategies to quickly end any conflict, feud, or estrangement / David J. Lieberman
  • A people's history of the United States / Howard Zinn
  • The world of the hummingbird / Robert Burton
  • Writing down the bones : freeing the writer within / Natalie Goldberg
  • Shadow warriors : inside the Special Forces / Tom Clancy, with Carl Stiner
  • The tipping point : how little things can make a big difference / Malcolm Gladwell
  • The Motley Fool's what to do with your money now : ten steps to staying up in a down market / David and Tom Gardner
  • Santa Fe houses / Christine Mather, Sharon Woods ; photographs by Jack Parsons
  • Vegetarian cooking for everyone / Deborah Madison ; [photographs by Laurie Smith]
  • Synaptic self : how our brains become who we are / Joseph LeDoux
  • Natasha : the biography of Natalie Wood / by Suzanne Finstad
  • Paris to the moon / Adam Gopnik
  • Ancient encounters : Kennewick Man and the first Americans / James C. Chatters
  • Ancient Rome / written by Simon James
  • The book of wizard craft : in which the apprentice finds spells, potions, fantastic tales, and 50 enchanting things to make / [authors, Janice Eaton Kilby, Deborah Morgenthal, Terry Taylor ; illustrated by Lindy Burnett]
  • Healing beyond the body : medicine and the infinite reach of the mind / Larry Dossey
  • Find me / Rosie O'Donnell
  • Cadillac desert : the American West and its disappearing water / Marc Reisnee
  • Bones : discovering the first Americans / Elaine Dewar
  • Every drop for sale : our desperate battle over water in a world about to run out / Jeffrey Rothfeder
  • Algebra, the easy way / Douglas Downing ; [illustrations by Susan Detrich]
     These were the 150 most popular non-fiction titles, based on circulation figures, in 2002. They are shown here in order of popularity, with the numbers including all formats for a given title--regular books, audio, large print. Audio books are very popular (almost no matter which title), so audio versions increase a title's circulation statistics rapidly.
     It's hard to know just what conclusions to draw from this list. :-) Many are new books, but certainly not all. If we were to begin lumping things together by author or by subject, as for example Suze Orman's titles, or Andy Goldsworthy's titles, or the Dalai Lama's titles; or "post-911 public affairs"; or even "all the Fodor's titles about European countries", the order by popularity would be somewhat different. As always, the numbers pile up faster the more copies we have. We could easily circulate several more copies each of such old favorites as Algebra the Easy Way or Adobe angels : the ghosts of Santa Fe and Taos or A child called "it" . If we could have bought enough to saturate the demand, those and many others of the titles above would have circulated even more than they did.


Updated March 24. 2005.
Santa Fe Public Library, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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