Records & Rankings
The numbers behind the list
Ninety-five years of bestseller data, distilled into records. The books that dominated, the authors who kept coming back, and how the make-up of the list has shifted over time.
Longest at #1
Books with the most weeks at the top of the non-fiction list
Most weeks on the list
The books that stayed — not just at the top, but anywhere on the non-fiction list
Author records
The authors who owned the non-fiction list
Most weeks at #1
Total weeks with a title at rank 1
- 1Norman Vincent Peale98 wks · 1 title
- 2William L. Shirer67 wks · 2 titles
- 3Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard64 wks · 11 titles
- 4Anne Morrow Lindbergh62 wks · 3 titles
- 5Mitch Albom61 wks · 2 titles
- 6Joshua Loth Liebman58 wks · 1 title
- 7John Gunther52 wks · 4 titles
- 8James Herriot46 wks · 4 titles
- 9Dale Carnegie46 wks · 2 titles
- 10Erma Bombeck45 wks · 4 titles
- 11Theodore H. White44 wks · 3 titles
- 12Rachel Carson44 wks · 2 titles
Most titles on the list
Distinct books that appeared on any week's list
- 1Bob Woodward18 titles
- 2Jimmy Carter17 titles
- 3Michael Lewis16 titles
- 4David Halberstam15 titles
- 5Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard14 titles
- 6John Gunther14 titles
- 7Christopher Andersen13 titles
- 8Dave Barry13 titles
- 9Michael Savage12 titles
- 10Mark R. Levin12 titles
- 11James Herriot12 titles
- 12John Feinstein11 titles
Who gets on the list
Author gender as a share of non-fiction list appearances, 1931–present. Based on 69% of authors with resolved gender data — the trend is directional, not a complete census.
Showing percentage of resolved list appearances only. Authors without Wikidata gender data are excluded from this chart. About the data →