Out of Print Books in the News
The hotly contested 2004 presidential race led to massive demand
for John Kerry's anti-war book The New Soldier and Lynne
Cheney's frontier lesbian romance Sisters. The race may
be over, but readers are still looking for out of print political
books from the 1960s and 1970s providing context to current
headlines.
Republican Senator and 1964 Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater
inspired a generation of young conservatives with his libertarian
ideals. His 1960 book, The Conscience of a Conservative,
discussed not only his strong opposition to Communism, but also many
ideas that remain part of contemporary political discourse: the flat
tax, the reduction of federal spending, the privatization of social
security, and reduced regulation of businesses.
W. Mark Felt, the former associate director of the FBI, was
recently revealed to have been Deep Throat. His 1979 memoir, The
FBI Pyramid from the Inside, dealt with his experiences as the
#2 man at the FBI, supporting J. Edgar Hoover's work, and standing up
to the charges of civil libertarian critics. Felt also unambiguously
denied being Deep Throat; ironically, the book was published while he
was himself on trial for ordering FBI agents to engage in illegal
burglaries. Demand for copies of the book has peaked, as readers try
to learn more about the man who brought down a government.
Featured Titles
- Cards As Weapons by Ricky Jay
- Magician and author Ricky Jay has been showing up
everywhere. We've seen him featured in Talk of the Nation,
MythBusters, and Boing Boing. His 1977 book Cards as
Weapons teaches card scaling, the fine art of throwing simple
playing cards, and includes photos of him throwing a playing card
190 feet at a speed of 90 miles an hour, a feat that landed him in
the Guiness Book of World Records. Long out of print,
the book is widely sought after by creative magicians card sharks,
and hobbyists.
- Bambi's Children by Felix Salten
- Bambi becomes a family man (deer?) in the author's sequel to his
1923 original. Salten repeats the mother-deer-in-peril storyline;
Bambi couldn't save his mother from the hunter, but his twin
children, Geno and Gurri, grow up to save theirs from the evil
winter wolf.
- Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader
- Published in 1965, Ralph Nader's first book was a scathing
criticism of the poor safety design of the Chevrolet Corvair. The
resulting negative publicity caused GM to redesign the car, and
helped launch the career of the muckraking consumer advocate and
later three-time Presidential candidate.
Top 10 Lists
| Arts and Music |
| Painting, photography, dance, music, etc.;
Architecture and design; Books about art and artistic movements;
museum and auction catalogs |
| 1 |
Madonna |
Sex |
| 2 |
Glen Cleeton |
General Printing |
| 3 |
Henri Cartier-Bresson |
The Decisive Moment |
| 4 |
Hendrik Van Loon |
The Arts |
| 5 |
Larry Clark |
Teenage Lust |
| 6 |
William Cullen Bryant |
Picturesque America |
| 7 |
Thomas Craven |
A Treasury of American Prints |
| 8 |
Edward S. Curtis |
Portraits from North American Indian Life |
| 9 |
Rockwell Kent, ed. |
World-Famous Paintings |
| 10 |
Ralph W. Polk |
The Practice of Printing |
| Biography |
| Includes
autobiography and memoirs, as well as biographies of athletes,
politicians, artists, writers, etc. |
| 1 |
Hunter S. Thompson |
The Curse of Lono |
| 2 |
C.K. Shepherd |
Across America by Motor-Cycle |
| 3 |
Charles M. Russell |
Good Medicine: Memories of the Real West |
| 4 |
P.J. O'Brien |
Will Rogers, Ambassador of Good Will, Prince of Wit and
Wisdom |
| 5 |
W. Mark Felt |
The FBI Pyramid from the Inside |
| 6 |
Bobby Fischer |
My 60 Memorable Games |
| 7 |
Page Smith |
John Adams |
| 8 |
T.E. Lawrence |
The Mint |
| 9 |
Golda Meir |
My Life |
| 10 |
Paul Hoffman |
To Drop a Dime |
| Children's |
| Fiction
and nonfiction; young adult, fairy tales, poetry; picture books |
| 1 |
Robb White |
The Lion's Paw |
| 2 |
Joseph Chipperfield |
The Story of a Great Ship |
| 3 |
Roald Dahl |
The Gremlins |
| 4 |
Watty Piper, ed. |
The Bumper Book |
| 5 |
Felix Salten |
Bambi's Children; the Story of a Forest Family |
| 6 |
Holling C. Holling |
The Book of Indians |
| 7 |
Dean Koontz |
Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages |
| 8 |
Anne Alexander |
The Pink Dress |
| 9 |
Marilyn Kaye |
A Day with No Math |
| 10 |
Nan Gilbert |
365 Bedtime Stories |
| Crafts and Hobbies |
| Cooking,
gardening, collecting, pets, how-to books, etc. |
| 1 |
June Hemmons Hiatt |
The Principles of Knitting |
| 2 |
Alice Starmore |
Aran Knitting |
| 3 |
Ricky Jay |
Cards as Weapons |
| 4 |
Andrew Loomis |
Creative Illustration |
| 5 |
Penny McMorris |
Crazy Quilts |
| 6 |
Vincent and Mary Price |
A Treasury of Great Recipes |
| 7 |
Alice Medrich |
Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts |
| 8 |
Elly Sienkiewicz |
Spoken without a Word: A Lexicon of Selected Symbols with
24 Patterns from Classic Baltimore Album Quilts |
| 9 |
Susanna E. Lewis |
Knitting Lace |
| 10 |
Libby Lehman |
Threadplay with Libby Lehman: Mastering Machine Embroidery
Techniques |
| Fiction and Literature |
| Current
and classic titles, literary nonfiction, criticism, essays |
| 1 |
Taylor Caldwell |
Dear and Glorious Physician |
| 2 |
Shane Stevens |
Rat Pack |
| 3 |
Nora Roberts |
Promise Me Tomorrow |
| 4 |
Cameron Crowe |
Fast Times at Ridgemont High |
| 5 |
Taylor Caldwell |
This Side of Innocence |
| 6 |
Sinclair Lewis |
Cass Timberlane |
| 7 |
Hervey Allen |
Anthony Adverse |
| 8 |
A.J. Cronin |
The Green Years |
| 9 |
Robert Klane |
The Horse is Dead |
| 10 |
Zane Grey |
The Vanishing American |
| History |
| US and
international; from ancient to modern |
| 1 |
Douglas E. Nash |
Hell's Gate: The Battle of the Cherkassy Pocket |
| 2 |
Jo White Linn |
Surry County, North Carolina, Wills, 1771-1827 |
| 3 |
Tate Cromwell Page |
Voices of Moccasin Creek |
| 4 |
Tom Lea |
The King Ranch |
| 5 |
R.P. Hunnicutt |
Sherman: A History of the American Medium Tank |
| 6 |
Kenneth Roberts, ed. |
March to Quebec: Journals of the Members of Arnold's
Expedition |
| 7 |
Fletcher Pratt, ed. |
Civil War in Pictures |
| 8 |
R.P. Hunnicutt |
A History of the American Light Tank: Volume 1 Stuart |
| 9 |
William Manchester |
The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America,
1932-1972 |
| 10 |
Alan Axelrod and Charles Phillips |
What Everyone Should Know About the 20th Century: 200 Events
That Shaped the World |
| Mysteries and
Thrillers |
| Thrillers, whodunits, classics as well as modern
titles; popular detectives and spies; "true crime"
|
| 1 |
James Patterson |
Virgin |
| 2 |
Lindsey Davis |
Silver Pigs: A Detective Novel in Ancient Rome |
| 3 |
James Clavell |
Whirlwind |
| 4 |
Ben Ames Williams |
Leave Her to Heaven |
| 5 |
Henry Webster |
The Whispering Man |
| 6 |
Charles McCarry |
The Last Supper |
| 7 |
William S. Baring-Gould, ed. |
The Annotated Sherlock Holmes |
| 8 |
David A. Yallop |
In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope
John Paul I |
| 9 |
Charles McCarry |
The Better Angels |
| 10 |
Frances Parkinson Keyes |
Dinner at Antoine's |
| Popular Science &
Technology |
| Scientific titles directed at a general audience,
cars, personal finance, health, computers and internet |
| 1 |
T. Gilbert Pearson |
Birds of America |
| 2 |
Immanuel Velikovsky |
Worlds in Collision |
| 3 |
John Bernard Walker |
An Unsinkable Titanic: Every Ship Its Own Lifeboat |
| 4 |
Carl Sagan |
Murmurs of Earth |
| 5 |
Andrew Tobias |
The Invisible Bankers: Everything the Insurance Industry
Never Wanted You to Know |
| 6 |
Dorothea Brande |
Wake up and Live! |
| 7 |
Jacob Bronowski |
The Ascent of Man |
| 8 |
Ralph Nader |
Unsafe at Any Speed: the Designed-In Dangers of the American
Automobile |
| 9 |
Buddy Fey |
Data Power: Using Racecar Data Acquisition |
| 10 |
Michael Levin |
Why Race Matters: Race Differences and What They Mean |
| Science Fiction,
Fantasy & Horror |
| Includes
ghosts, aliens, science fiction, romance, high tech; reference and
criticism |
| 1 |
Sherrilyn Kenyon |
Born of the Night |
| 2 |
Jack Vance |
The Dark Side of the Moon: Stories of the Future |
| 3 |
Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) |
Rage |
| 4 |
Jon F. Merz |
The Fixer |
| 5 |
Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) |
The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels by Stephen King |
| 6 |
Tim Powers |
On Stranger Tides |
| 7 |
David Harvey |
The Song of Middle-Earth: J.R.R. Tolkien's Themes, Symbols
and Myths |
| 8 |
Ray Garton |
In a Dark Place |
| 9 |
Martha Wells |
The Element of Fire |
| 10 |
Isaac Asimov |
Pebble in the Sky |
| Society and Culture |
| Travel,
entertainment, current events and politics |
| 1 |
John Kerry |
The New Soldier |
| 2 |
Barry M. Goldwater |
The Conscience of a Conservative |
| 3 |
James-Charles Noonan |
Church Visible: the Ceremonial Life and Protocol of the
Roman Catholic Church |
| 4 |
C.S. Lewis |
The Allegory of Love; A Study in Medieval Tradition |
| 5 |
Bill Mauldin |
Back Home |
| 6 |
L. Fletcher Prouty |
The Secret Team |
| 7 |
Peter H. Beard |
The End of the Game: The Last Word from Paradise: a
Pictorial Documentation of the Origins, History and Prospects of
the Big Game in Africa |
| 8 |
Wilfred Thesiger |
The Marsh Arabs |
| 9 |
Vironique Vienne |
French Style: How to Think, Dress and Shop like a French
Woman |
| 10 |
J. Edgar Hoover |
Masters of Deceit; the Story of Communism in America and How
to Fight It |