The Bestselling Summer Novels of the 1960s Were Either Horny Or Boring

We take another look back! Plus: Heather needs help. And more Olympics chat!

FIRST OFF: I accidentally sent everyone today’s Olympics post yesterday and I am sorry I did that! I do not know what happened. (I think I unclicked a button that needed to stay clicked.) I also feel like this was bound to happen and now it has. APOLOGIES.

Congrats, Broads! Crack open your notebooks and get out your library cards: It is time once again for us to visit bestsellers of summers past! Previously, we’ve gone back in time to the 1970s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and the first decade of the current century. Today, we’re really revving up the hot tub time machine and visiting the bestsellers of the 1960s. As a reminder: Methodologically speaking, I consider “summer” to be roughly the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and my source for all book-related data is Wikipedia, which has very helpfully collated the New York Times number one best-sellers for every week of every year from 1931 to the present. Handy!! 

Unlike previously explored decades, where it felt like every week Americans w…