Part 1 (in case I decide to write more later. I’m not linking or doing anything because on thing that slows my desire to blog is the linking and adding images. Maybe I will some other time)
The other day I happened across a list of NY Times Bestsellers from 1989. It was particular interest to me because that was the year I began working at a chain bookstore. Six years later I would leave that job, but not before running into, and often reading, many great books. Almost everything Thursday was like Christmas, opening the boxes from the publishers, and pulling out the new, untouched and unread books. Some we expected, but there was always an unknown paperback or hardcover that would look interesting and, later, gain a readership (the Warners’ edition of The Celestine Prophecy, anyone? The book by Marianne Williamson called A Woman’s Worth was one of, if not the first, books to fly off the shelf because of Oprah’s discussion about it. The books below are a good representation of who populated the bestseller lists during the early 1990s. Stephen King, Danielle Steele, and Mary Higgins Clark were always on it.
At the store I worked at we stickered the bestsellers each week, which meant if a book fell off the list, we unstickered it. Yes, books costs too much, and our fearless company discounted the books at 40% off. If it climbed back onto the list, as often happened, we stickered it again. You tend to learn many of the titles and authors that way, by handling stacks of the same book over and over. Some books stayed on the lists for months, some over a year (Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss is one example).
Finding this list again brought back a lot of memories: Continue reading
MARK WIBERG 