Modern Classics Project

A couple years ago I began making a habit of reading on the train to work. It was difficult to decide what to read, so I decided to read what everyone else has been reading. This list of "modern classics" are compiled using the weekly New York Times Best-seller lists. These are books that have consistently been on the best-seller lists throughout the past decade. Even when these books are no longer on the new arrivals rack at the bookstore, people still keep buying them.

The number in parentheses is the number of weeks the book has been on the best-seller list. Asterisk (*) denotes a book that I have not read yet. Pound (#) denotes a book that I am currently reading.

  1. # What to Expect When You’re Expecting (474)
  2. Rich Dad, Poor Dad (348)
  3. The Tipping Point (307)
  4. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (276)
  5. Guns, Germs, and Steel (209)
  6. The Three Cups of Tea (186)
  7. * Eat, Pray, Love (185)
  8. The Glass Castle (181)
  9. Tuesdays with Morrie (179)
  10. * 90 Minutes in Heaven (178)
  11. * The Secret (171)
  12. The Devil in the White City (170)
  13. Into the Wild (164)
  14. * The Five Love Languages (160)
  15. Dreams from My Father (156)
  16. * Blink (149)
  17. * I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (147)
  18. * Skinny Bitch (145)
  19. Running with Scissors (142)
  20. The Alchemist (142)
  21. * The Omnivore's Dilemma (142)
  22. The Seat of the Soul (137)
  23. The Kite Runner (130)
  24. The Iraq Study Group Report (121)
  25. *The Shack (113)
  26. Freakonomics (111)
  27. The Four Agreements (108)
  28. Fast Food Nation (107)
  29. The World is Flat (106)
  30. *The Last Lecture (100)

Why wasn’t Harry Potter on the list?

If children’s books interest you, here’s my list of modern classics for children’s books that I’ve compiled using the same methodology as the list above. I just don’t want to be caught reading “Junie B., First Grader” while taking the Metro to work ;)

  1. The Harry Potter series [ages 10+] (231)
  2. The Magic Tree House series [ages 6-9] (224)
  3. The Junie B., First Grader series [ages 4-8] (182)
  4. Percy Jackson & The Olympians [ages 9-12] (163)
  5. The Twilight Saga [ages 12+] (159)
  6. The Book Thief [ages 14+] (154)
  7. The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants series [ages 12+] (136)
  8. Hoot [ages 10+] (135)
  9. Eragon [ages 12+] (121)
  10. GALLOP! [ages 4-8] (119)
  11. Artemis Fowl [ages 8+] (113)
  12. The Spiderwick Chronicles [ages 6-10] (103)
  13. House of Night [ages 14+] (103)
  14. The Hunger Games [ages 12+] (102)