A Look at Books Released During Leap Years

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Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is “Holy cats!” Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, she’s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! She’s too busy reading.

Twitter: @MissLiberty

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It’s Leap Year Day — which means we get a whole extra day to read! I started thinking about leap years a few months ago, and then I started wondering about books that were released in leap years. I realized that the last thirty leap years were also election years. What were people reading during the years we elected presidents? What books were bestsellers?

So, just for fun, I pulled together a list to take us back in book history and see what people were reading the last ten leap years. (Spoiler: It’s a whole lot of John Grisham.) You will not be surprised to see some names from forty years ago are still on bestseller lists today, and some names will be blasts from the past. A lot of these books won major awards. Some are indicative of toxic trends, like diet books and sexist advice books. And some reflect the divisive state of the country, just like the bestsellers of today. Overall, it’s a fun walk down memory lane.

Before we start, a few things about this list: I pulled this information from Google searches, mostly Wikipedia pages, and bestseller lists from Publishers Weekly and The New York Times. The bestsellers and books mentioned only account for books released in the United States. And for the most part, the list is comprised of books for adults. (The NYT combined adult and children sales in 2012, so a few are mentioned starting that year.) Please note that the bestselling book lists have historically been dominated by cis white men, which is reflected in this post. But the good news is that you can find out about more great books by women, LGBTQ authors, and authors of color pretty much anywhere else on this site!

1984

cover of The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub; image of a person standing in the dark with a flashlight beneath the northern lights

The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub – Fiction bestseller

2008

cover of The Appeal by John Grisham; photo of three men in judges' robes walking awaycover of The Appeal by John Grisham; photo of three men in judges' robes walking away

The Appeal by John Grisham – Fiction bestseller

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