Philosophical Monday: The Birthday Bestseller List

So HERE’S the bestseller list from the year I was born. And here’s how many books I’ve read on it: 0. No, I haven’t read ROOTS. It’s on my list. Somehow, it never got assigned to me, and I’m kind of bad about reading books that weren’t written within the last decade. There were authors that I’d heard of or read other works by, including Kurt Vonnegut, Agatha Christie, Clive Cussler, Saul Bellow and of course, Alex Haley. But there were more authors that I didn’t know, including the #1 bestseller for the week I was born, Leon Uris.

It made me realize that in most cases, fame, even the big bestselling kind is fleeting. It blows my mind that many of the people on this week’s bestseller list will be either dead or forgotten in thirty-four years. And while reading over the list, I wondered not for the first time, what does it all mean? Why are we all here? What is the point if we’ll eventually be forgotten anyway? I think this must be why so many artists insist on “living in the moment.” Living in the past is too upsetting, and living in the future is too disheartening.

So if you, too, want to be thrown into an existential crisis, go HERE to see what books were on the bestseller list when you were born. And then check out this fake NYT bestseller list by author Steve Healy (HOW I BECAME A FAMOUS NOVELIST), which snapped me right out of that crisis with a laugh.

Tomorrow: My Fellow Capricorns…