These were the 85 most popular non-fiction titles,
based on circulation figures, in 2003. They are shown here in order of popularity.
For a different look at what people read, try Most Popular Authors,
and/or the previous years' Most popular non-fiction titles, 2002 and
2001.
(more about this list)
- Stupid white men-- and other sorry excuses for the state of the nation! / Michael Moore
- Seabiscuit : an American legend / Laura Hillenbrand
- The power of now : a guide to spiritual enlightenment / Eckhart Tolle
- Portrait of a killer : Jack the Ripper--case closed / Patricia Cornwell
- Turn left at the Sleeping Dog : scripting the Santa Fe legend, 1920-1955 / John Pen La Farge
- Conversations with God : an uncommon dialogue / Neale Donald Walsch
- Dark star safari : overland from Cairo to Cape Town / Paul Theroux
- Under the banner of heaven : a story of violent faith / Jon Krakauer
- Longitudes and attitudes : exploring the world after September 11 / Thomas L. Friedman
- Spanish in 32 lessons / Adrienne
- What should I do with my life? / Po Bronson
- Dr. Atkins' new diet revolution / Robert C. Atkins
- John Adams / David McCullough
- A people's history of the United States / Howard Zinn
- Santa Fe style / Christine Mather and Sharon Woods
- Atkins for life : the complete controlled-carb program for permanent weight loss and good health / Robert C. Atkins
- The four agreements : a practical guide to personal freedom / Miguel Ruiz
- My losing season / Pat Conroy
- Lies (and the lying liars who tell them) : a fair and balanced look at the right / Al Franken
- Adobe angels: the ghost of... (series) / Antonio Garcez
- Power politics / Arundhati Roy
- Beyond belief : the secret Gospel of Thomas / Elaine Pagels
- The forgotten founders : rethinking the history of the Old West / Stewart L. Udall
- Eat right 4 your type : the individualized diet solution to staying healthy, living longer & achieving your ideal weight / Peter J. D'Adamo
- War is a force that gives us meaning / Chris Hedges
- Behind sad eyes : the life of George Harrison / Marc Shapiro
- Justice betrayed : a double killing in old Santa Fe / Ralph Melnick
- Not so big solutions for your home / Sarah Susanka
- Perpetual war for perpetual peace : how we got to be so hated / Gore Vidal
- Running with scissors : a memoir / Augusten Burroughs
- Fodor's Italy
- Santa Fe houses / Christine Mather, Sharon Woods ; photographs by Jack Parsons
- Pigs at the trough : how corporate greed and political corruption are undermining America / Arianna Huffington
- Under the Tuscan sun : at home in Italy / Frances Mayes
- The myth of Santa Fe : creating a modern regional tradition / Chris Wilson
- Nickel and dimed : on (not) getting by in America / Barbara Ehrenreich
- The devil in the white city : murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America / Erik Larson
- The lobster chronicles : life on a very small island / Linda Greenlaw
- The best democracy money can buy : an investigative reporter exposes the truth about globalization, corporate cons, and high finance fraudsters / Greg Palast
- Almost there : the onward journey of a Dublin woman / Nuala O'Faolain
- Fast food nation : the dark side of the all-American meal / Eric Schlosser
- Regarding the pain of others / Susan Sontag
- South American handbook
- Fodor's ... Mexico
- Aesop's fables
- 9-11 / by Noam Chomsky
- Dude, where's my country? / Michael Moore
- Reefer madness : sex, drugs, and cheap labor in the American black market / Eric Schlosser
- Living history / Hillary Rodham Clinton
- The orchid thief / Susan Orlean
- The 9 steps to financial freedom / Suze Orman
- Everyday grace : having hope, finding forgiveness, and making
miracles / Marianne Williamson
- The complete Crumb. Volume 16, The mid-1980s : more years of
valiant struggle / R. Crumb
- Fodor's France
- Absolute trust in the goodness of the earth : new poems / Alice
Walker
- Leap of faith : memoirs of an unexpected life / Queen Noor
- The artist's way : a spiritual path to higher creativity / Julia
Cameron
- My invented country : a nostalgic journey through Chile / Isabel
Allende
- This just in : what I couldn't tell you on TV / Bob Schieffer
- The botany of desire : a plant's-eye view of the world / Michael
Pollan
- Self matters : creating your life from the inside out / Phillip C. McGraw
- The Kennedy curse : why America's first family has been haunted
by tragedy for 150 years / Edward Klein
- Sacred contracts : awakening your divine potential / Caroline
Myss
- A short history of nearly everything / Bill Bryson
- Fodor's ... Spain
- Fodor's ... Costa Rica
- Santa Fe, a pictorial history / John Sherman
- Bush at war / Bob Woodward
- New Mexico gardener's guide : the what, when, how & why of
gardening in New Mexico / Judith Phillips
- Me talk pretty one day / David Sedaris
- Falling up : poems and drawings / by Shel Silverstein
- Blue latitudes : boldly going where Captain Cook has gone
before / Tony Horwitz
- Day hikes in the Santa Fe area / by the Santa Fe Group of the
Sierra Club
- American Indian myths and legends / selected and edited by
Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz
- The straw bale house / Athena Swentzell Steen ... [et al.].
- Writing down the bones : freeing the writer within / Natalie
Goldberg
- The Info Mesa : science, business, and new age alchemy on the
Santa Fe Plateau / Ed Regis
- The sense of being stared at : and other aspects of the extended
mind / Rupert Sheldrake
- Bird by bird : instructions on writing and life / Anne Lamott
- Algebra, the easy way / Douglas Downing
- The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark / William Shakespeare
- Dr. Atkins' new diet revolution / Robert C. Atkins
- Roadside geology of New Mexico / Halka Chronic
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More about this list...
If we were to lump non-fiction books together by author or by subject,
as for example Michael Moore's titles, or Dr. Atkins' titles,
or the Dalai Lama's titles, or the stunning flood of election-year political titles taken
all together, the order by popularity would be somewhat different.
Many are books new in the last year or two,
but certainly not all. 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 The people's history of the United States or Adobe angels : the ghosts of
Santa Fe and Taos or A child called "it"; or the new
favorite Spanish in 32 lessons. 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.
The way the list was generated
did a certain amount of useful lumping, what amounts to a
sideways 'popular subject' list: the several
titles which begin with (in order of frequency):
Mexico
New Mexico
World Book
encyclopedia
Santa Fe
Let's Go (travel series)
Georgia O'Keeffe
Snakes
Italy
Ancient Egypt
France
Sharks
City-smart guidebook (travel series)
Japan
Anne Frank
Mobil travel guide
Frida Kahlo
Tibet
Hawaii
National Audubon Society first field guide (series)
Abraham Lincoln
Volcanoes
Ancient Greece
Trains
Spain
Wolves
Benjamin Franklin
Dolphins
Earthquakes
El mundo de los niños (Spanish World Book)
Palmistry
Pirates
Beadwork
China
Feng Shui
Leonardo da Vinci
London
Insects
India...
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