Ever wonder whichbookyour parents or grandparent might have been interpret when you came take a hop into this world ? Wordery , a UK - base on-line bookstall , has a fun puppet that list the bestselling novel from the class you were born .
Just plug in your age , and Wordery will tell you which title topped theThe New York Timesbestsellers list for the foresighted full stop of time that year . ( In the case of a linkup , Wordery prefer to go with the first book to hit no . 1 . ) If you would rather browse alternatively , you may easily check out the titles that were popular between 1948 and 2018 by navigate the timeline at the top , or by clicking the right wing and left arrows .
Long before John Grisham’sCamino Islandand Bill Clinton and James Patterson’sThe President Is Missingbecame bestselling books ( in 2017 and 2018 , respectively ) , Robert Traver’sAnatomy of a Murder(1958 ) , Mario Puzo’sThe Godfather(1969 ) , and Robert Ludlum’sThe Bourne Identity(1980 ) were among the tomes that toppedThe Times ’s list . Although thriller andcrimenovels have always been democratic , romance and historical fabrication are the genres that seem most often on the inclination .

John Grisham is the author who pops up most frequently , but it was Pulitzer Prize - gain author James A. Michener ’s 1959 bookHawaiithat spent the longest amount of fourth dimension at the top of the charts—38 weeks aggregate , compared to the modal time of six week . Published the same year that Hawaii became a state of matter , the employment of historic fiction tells the story of Hawaii from different view , from the shaping of the island up to the twentieth century .
Wordery ’s tool is also a way to discover about your own personal history . “ It ’s always fun to regain out what was materialize in the mankind the year you were bear , and eff which novel your parents were likely to be reading throughout the first yr of your life is quite fascinating , ” Barry Magennis , spokesperson for Wordery , said in a statement .
Try it out for yourselfhere . It might just inspire you to call up your parents or pay a sojourn to your locallibrary(or both ) .
A version of this story ran in 2019 ; it has been updated for 2024 .