"Cold Mountain" was the top-selling fiction book we had in that time, it was on the top of the New York Time's Best Sellers list virtually uninterrupted. The "Green Mile" series from Stephen King was also hot for a few months. Otherwise it was new releases from the same 4-5 authors you'll see on the best sellers list today. Like the video game business, things don't really seem to change that much. I'm sure Madden '98 was the top selling game of 1997, or maybe Final Fantasy VII.

On the non-fiction side, I recall "Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan having a nice run. He had died recently so his final book received a lot of attention. It was also the only non-school related book I read over this 18-month span. "Into Thin Air" was another title that racked-up sales. Johnny Cochran released an autobiography that sold surprisingly well. Two years after the "trial of the century" OJ books practically had their own section. There was an assortment of fad-diet, pop-psych, and psuedo-religious books that sold steadily too.

For those looking for a nugget of computer/video game related content (which is what 99% of my site is about) here's all I have.. We sold a healthy stack of Windows 95 and some Windows 98 preview books, usually the "Dummies" variety to new computer owners. Java programming books were very popular for those looking to try their hand at the emerging web development scene. They all went on to create crappy applets on their crappy Geocities page. We had some video game hint books but the magazines always outsold them. I barely followed the gaming scene at this point (and still haven't really caught up).

Of course we sold the usual stuff. People bought a lot of Bibles, high school kids bought "To Kill a Mockingbird", cheap romance and sci-fi books were constant sellers. I imagine that hasn't changed in 10 years either.