These were the 85 most popular non-fiction titles, based on circulation figures, in 2004. 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, 2003,
2002 and
2001.
Lies (and the lying liars who tell them) / Al Franken
Let's go: (travel series)
Under the banner of heaven : a story of violent faith / Jon Krakauer
Mobil travel guide: (travel series)
My life / Bill Clinton
Against all enemies : inside America's war on terror / Richard A. Clarke
Dude, where's my country? / Michael Moore
The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark / William Shakespeare
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books / Azar Nafisi
Eats, shoots & leaves : the zero tolerance approach to punctuation / Lynne Truss
Worse than Watergate : the secret presidency of George W. Bush / John W. Dean
Hegemony or survival : America's quest for global dominance / Noam Chomsky
Insectia [videorecording]
The South Beach diet : the delicious, doctor-designed, foolproof plan for fast and healthy weight loss / Arthur Agatston
American dynasty : aristocracy, fortune, and the politics of deceit in the house of Bush / Kevin Phillips
Fodor's ... Mexico
Plan of attack / Bob Woodward
Living history / Hillary Rodham Clinton
The sorrows of empire : militarism, secrecy, and the end of the Republic / Chalmers Johnson
The power of now : a guide to spiritual enlightenment / Eckhart Tolle
Kit Carson & his three wives : a family history / Marc Simmons
Holy blood, Holy Grail / Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln
The 9/11 Commission report : final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
Bush in Babylon : the recolonisation of Iraq / Tariq Ali
The price of loyalty : George W. Bush, the White House, and the education of Paul O'Neill / Ron Suskind
Me talk pretty one day / David Sedaris
Conversations with God : an uncommon dialogue / Neale Donald Walsch
Stupid white men-- and other sorry excuses for the state of the nation! / Michael Moore
The myth of Santa Fe : creating a modern regional tradition / Chris Wilson
Bushwhacked : life in George W. Bush's America / Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose
Beyond belief : the secret Gospel of Thomas / Elaine Pagels
City-smart guidebook (travel series)
A language older than words / Derrick Jensen
The sexy years : discover the hormone connection : the secret to fabulous sex, great health, and vitality for women and men / Suzanne Somers
The great unraveling : losing our way in the new century / Paul Krugman
Jewish pioneers of New Mexico / foreword by Thomas E. Chávez ; main text compiled and edited by Tomas Jaehn
Blindsided : lifting a life above illness : a reluctant memoir / Richard M. Cohen
Fodor's Spain
The ultimate weight solution : the 7 keys to weight loss freedom / Phil McGraw
Three weeks with my brother / Nicholas Sparks and Micah Sparks
1,000 places to see before you die / Patricia Schultz
I spy fantasy : a book of picture riddles / photographs by Walter Wick ; riddles by Jean Marzollo
Positive energy : 10 extraordinary prescriptions for transforming fatigue, stress, and fear into vibrance, strength, and love / Judith Orloff
Fodor's France
The working poor : invisible in America / David K. Shipler
The devil in the white city : murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America / Erik Larson
Living to tell the tale / Gabriel García Márquez
Santa Fe, a pictorial history / by John Sherman
Retire on less than you think : the New York times guide to planning your financial future / Fred Brock
Fodor's Italy
Perfectly legal : the covert campaign to rig our tax system to benefit the super rich-- and cheat everybody else / David Cay Johnson
Ghost towns alive : trips to New Mexico's past / Linda G. Harris ; photographs by Pamela Porter
The sound of paper : starting from scratch / Julia Cameron
The spiral staircase : my climb out of darkness / Karen Armstrong
Under the Tuscan sun : at home in Italy / Frances Mayes
Adobe angels : the ghosts of Santa Fe and Taos / [compiled by] Antonio R. Garcez
The fabric of the cosmos : space, time, and the texture of reality / Brian Greene
Beyond : visions of the interplanetary probes / Michael Benson
Middle East illusions : including peace in the Middle East? : reflections on justice and nationhood / Noam Chomsky
Self matters : creating your life from the inside out / Phillip C. McGraw
Stillness speaks / Eckhart Tolle
Winged migration / text by Jean-Franois Mongibeaux
Fodor's Costa Rica
A people's history of the United States / Howard Zinn
Nicholas and Alexandra / Robert K. Massie
Roadside geology of New Mexico / Halka Chronic
Turn left at the Sleeping Dog : scripting the Santa Fe legend, 1920-1955 / John Pen La Farge [editor]
The Guaymas chronicles : la mandadera / David E. Stuart
The gnostic Gospels / by Elaine Pagels
A royal duty / Paul Burrell
Santa Fe style / Christine Mather and Sharon Woods
House of Bush, house of Saud : the secret relationship between the world's two most powerful dynasties / Craig Unger
Atkins for life : the complete controlled-carb program for permanent weight loss and good health / Robert C. Atkins
A journey of one's own : uncommon advice for the independent woman traveler / Thalia Zepatos
Spanish in 32 lessons / Adrienne
Aesop's fables
Tao te ching
Grace and power : the private world of the Kennedy White House / Sally Bedell Smith
Cool yoga tricks / Miriam Austin
Eat right 4 your type : the individualized diet solution to staying healthy, living longer & achieving your ideal weight / Peter J. D'Adamo
The river in winter : new and selected essays / Stanley Crawford
The exception to the rulers : exposing oily politicians, war profiteers, and the media that love them / Amy Goodman with David Goodman
Ghost wars : the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001 / Steve Coll
Roadside New Mexico : a guide to historic markers / David Pike
The funny thing is-- / Ellen Degeneres
Truth & beauty : a friendship / Ann Patchett
Dark star safari : overland from Cairo to Cape Town / Paul Theroux
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 David Sedaris' titles,
or the Dalai Lama's titles; or travel guides by country, or political and social-issue titles--
the order of this list would be quite different. Overall, travel books and political books
alone represent an astonishing proportion of our readers' non-fiction interests.
For the first time we have a DVD on the list, Insectia.
Many of these entries are books new in the last year or two,
but certainly not all. Of course, while a book is still on the 7-day circulation shelves, its numbers pile
up much faster; as do the numbers for those books with plenty of copies.
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 new
favorites such as Eckhart Tolle's The power of now or Spanish in 32 lessons or Chris Wilson's The myth of Santa Fe : creating a modern regional tradition. If we could have bought enough to saturate the demand,
these 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):
New Mexico
Santa Fe
Mexico
Snakes
America the beautiful (series of books about the states)
Italy
Spiders
Volcanoes
France
Georgia O'Keeffe
Ancient Greece
Sharks
Spain
Japan
Dolphins
Penguins
India
Trains
Maya
Bats
Earth
Anne Frank
Tigers
Yoga
China
Islam
Georgia O'Keeffe
Frida Kahlo
Halloween
Hawaii
Rattlesnakes
Mammal
Ancient Egypt
Australia
