During this holiday season, if you happen to board a mysterious Polar Express train that takes you back to 1970 and lots of pale blue eyeshadow, among the New York Times' bestselling fiction books for the year would have been Mario Puzo's
The Godfather, John Fowles'
The French Lieutenant's Woman, and Erich Segal's
Love Story -- all destined to be Oscar-nominated movies as well. Long before gift cards and Kindles and internet shopping, people had to actually trudge to stores and wait in line to buy books for friends and/or family, and while they were out their landline phones went unanswered at home and there wasn't even anywhere to Yelp if someone working at the bookstore was rude or incompetent. (Seriously, thanks and praise to the technology gods for what they have given us in the 45 years since.)
For non-fiction book shoppers, 1970's top NY Times nonfiction bestsellers were
The Selling of the President 1968 by Joe McGinnis,
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) by David Reuben (Woody Allen apparently read that one),
Up the Organization by Robert Townsend,
The Sensuous Woman by "J" or Joan Garrity, and
The Greening of America by Charles A. Reich. All titles that sound quite fitting for the beginning of a decade that would definitely leave its mark on American history.
