You can bet that if a book was a bestseller at some point during the past four decades, our booksellers have seen dozens, hundreds or even thousands of copies of it.  Let’s track HPB’s timeline, noting some milestone bestsellers we’ve seen along our way.

1972  Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach / 1973  Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut / 1974  All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot / 1975  Curtain by Agatha Christie / 1976  Roots by Alex Haley / 1977  The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough / 1978  Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford / 1979  The Dead Zone by Stephen King

1980  The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum / 1981  A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein / 1982  Jane Fonda’s Workout Book by Jane Fonda / 1983  The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco / 1984  Full Circle by Danielle Steel / 1985  Texas by James Michener / 1986  You’re Only Old Once! by Dr. Seuss / 1987  The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe / 1988  The Great Depression of 1990 by Ravi Batra / 1989  All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

1990  Means of Ascent by Robert Caro / 1991  The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy / 1992  Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words by Andrew Morton / 1993  The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller / 1994  Couplehood  by Paul Reiser / 1995  The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans / 1996  Primary Colors by ”Anonymous” / 1997  Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier / 1998  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling / 1999  The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw

2000  It’s Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong / 2001  The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen / 2002  The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold / 2003  The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown / 2004  Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris / 2005  Blink by Malcolm Gladwell / 2006  Marley & Me by John Grogan / 2007  “T” is for Trespass by Sue Grafton / 2008  Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler / 2009  The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson / 2010  The Help by Kathryn Stockett / 2011  Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson / 2012  Wild by Cheryl Strayed

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Steve is Staffing & Development Manager (aka the “Buy Guy”) at Half Price Books Corporate.