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# TWIL #144 - An offer I couldn't refuse
- URL: https://www.mattrutherford.co.uk/twil-144-an-offer-i-couldnt-refuse/
- Published: 2026-10-31T09:29:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-31T09:29:00.000Z
- Author: Matt
- Tags: TWIL

Every week, I share something I learned in the previous seven days. I usually find these while I’m putting my weekly newsletter together but somehow, they don’t quite fit!

This week I learned that the best-selling book of the year I was born was *The Godfather* by Mario Puzo.

I would have bet money on it being a seventies book. In my head it belongs to 1972, because that is when the film arrived and Brando made it his.

The novel got there first. It came out in March 1969 and just sneaked into the late sixties.

Puzo, by his own account, wrote it to get out of debt. He had written two well-reviewed novels that earned him almost nothing, so this time he set out to write something people would actually buy. It worked.

BBC Bitesize has [the full rundown](https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zmdt239?ref=mattrutherford.co.uk). Fair warning: once you have found your own year, you will start looking up everyone else’s.

**What was yours?**

[Quiz: What was the New York Times best-selling novel the year you were born? - BBC BitesizeDiscover the bestselling book from the year you were born. Take our quiz and explore the history of bestseller lists and record-breaking books.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c2/2e/c22ecd6b-9412-4701-b914-97051141e207/content/images/icon/touch-icon-512.5bc88f1be4-d956b8f1-19f4-454f-afa1-98b91d776e8e.png)BBC BitesizeBBC Bitesize![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c2/2e/c22ecd6b-9412-4701-b914-97051141e207/content/images/thumbnail/p0pf2vkf-e70f5afc-4e14-4b3d-a6ff-6e3bf48f794e.jpg)](https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zmdt239?ref=mattrutherford.co.uk)

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