Barkley also mentioned Herman Wouk's World War II novel "War and Remembrance" as a current success.
November's "Campus Paperback Bestsellers," compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education from information supplied by college stores throughout the country, lists "The Thorn Birds," the story of an Australian family by Colleen McCullough, "My Mother, Myself," and "The Women's Room" as top sellers.
Students frequently check out novels on the Vietnam war, such as "Going After Cacciato" by Tim O'Brien and books by women authors such as "On Photography" by Susan Sontag, Jane R. Morhardt, assistant librarian at Lamont Library, said last week.
"It surprises me that sometimes the heaviest items go out just as often as what seems to be lighter reading," she said.
Despite the apparent trend, some professors doubt that many student have time for recreational reading.
"I didn't have the sense when I talked to students, that people are reading modern American authors," Peter A. Dale, assistant professor of English Literature, said last week.
"They're too busy reading sociology," he added