List of The New York Times number-one books of 2008

The American daily newspaper The New York Times publishes multiple weekly lists ranking the best selling books in the United States. The lists are split in three genres—fiction, nonfiction and children's books. Both the fiction and nonfiction lists are further split into multiple lists.

Fiction

The following list ranks the number-one best selling fiction books, in the hardcover fiction category.

The most popular books of the year were The Appeal, by John Grisham and Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult with respectively 5 and 3 weeks at the top. The author James Patterson was at the top for four different books (Double Cross, Sundays at Tiffany's, Sail and Cross Country).

Date	Book	Author
January 6	Double Cross	James Patterson
January 13	A Thousand Splendid Suns	Khaled Hosseini
January 20
January 27	Plum Lucky	Janet Evanovich
February 3
February 10	Duma Key	Stephen King
February 17	The Appeal	John Grisham
February 24
March 2
March 9
March 16
March 23	Change of Heart	Jodi Picoult
March 30
April 6
April 13	Compulsion	Jonathan Kellerman
April 20	Unaccustomed Earth	Jhumpa Lahiri
April 27	Where Are You Now?	Mary Higgins Clark
May 4	Hold Tight	Harlan Coben
May 11	The Whole Truth	David Baldacci
May 18	Sundays at Tiffany's	James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
May 25	The Host	Stephenie Meyer
June 1
June 8	Odd Hours	Dean Koontz
June 15	Blood Noir	Laurell K. Hamilton
June 22	Nothing to Lose	Lee Child
June 29	Sail	James Patterson and Howard Roughan
July 6	Fearless Fourteen	Janet Evanovich
July 13
July 20	The Last Patriot	Brad Thor
July 27	Tribute	Nora Roberts
August 3
August 10	Moscow Rules	Daniel Silva
August 17
August 24	Acheron	Sherrilyn Kenyon
August 31	Smoke Screen	Sandra Brown
September 7	The Force Unleashed	Sean Williams
September 14	Devil Bones	Kathy Reichs
September 21	Dark Curse	Christine Feehan
September 28	Anathem	Neal Stephenson
October 5	The Story of Edgar Sawtelle	David Wroblewski
October 12
October 19	The Lucky One	Nicholas Sparks
October 26
November 2	The Brass Verdict	Michael Connelly
November 9	Extreme Measures	Vince Flynn
November 16	The Gate House	Nelson DeMille
November 23	Divine Justice	David Baldacci
November 30	The Christmas Sweater	Glenn Beck
December 7	Cross Country	James Patterson
December 14
December 21	Scarpetta	Patricia Cornwell
December 28

Nonfiction

The following list ranks the number-one best selling nonfiction books, in the hardcover nonfiction category.

Date	Book	Author	Publisher
January 6	I Am America (And So Can You!)	Stephen Colbert	Grand Central
January 13
January 20	In Defense of Food	Michael Pollan	Penguin Press
January 27
February 3	Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography	Andrew Morton	St. Martin's
February 10	In Defense of Food	Michael Pollan	Penguin Press
February 17
February 24
March 2
March 9	Liberal Fascism	Jonah Goldberg	Doubleday
March 16	Losing It	Valerie Bertinelli	Free Press
March 23
March 30
April 6	Beautiful Boy	David Sheff	Houghton Mifflin
April 13	Mistaken Identity	Don and Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Colleen and Whitney Cerak, with Mark Tabb	Howard
April 20
April 27	Home	Julie Andrews	Hyperion
May 4	Beautiful Boy	David Sheff	Houghton Mifflin
May 11	Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea	Chelsea Handler	Simon Spotlight
May 18	The Revolution: A Manifesto	Ron Paul	Grand Central
May 25	Audition: A Memoir	Barbara Walters	Knopf
June 1
June 8
June 15	What Happened	Scott McClellan	PublicAffairs
June 22	When You Are Engulfed in Flames	David Sedaris	Little, Brown
June 29
July 6
July 13
July 20
July 27
August 3
August 10
August 17	The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality	Jerome R. Corsi	Threshold Editions
August 24
August 31
September 7
September 14	sTORI Telling	Tori Spelling with Hilary Liftin	Simon Spotlight
September 21
September 28	Hot, Flat, and Crowded	Thomas L. Friedman	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
October 31	Against Medical Advice: A True Story	James Patterson, Hal Friedman	Little, Brown and Company
November 30	Too Fat to Fish	Artie Lange with Anthony Bozza	Spiegel & Grau
December 7	Things That Matter	Charles Krauthammer	Crown Forum
December 15
December 21	Outliers	Malcolm Gladwell	Little, Brown

See also

• Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 2000s