Coturnix at science and politics has a roundup (also here and here)of blogospheric reaction to George Lakoff's Moral Politics and Don't think of an elephant, with many links, most of which I haven't had time to follow. More on this later.
Amazon's sales rank for Don't think of an elephant is 15, which (according to the mode of calculation that we've referenced before, corresponds to approximately 100 copies per day (sold through amazon, that is). On amazon's bestsellers list, it's just behind Kitty Kelley's Bush family biography (at #14). Other political books in the top 20 include Jon Stewart's America at #1, Unfit for Command at #8, and the 9/11 Commission report at #12.
George is beating Dan Brown's Angels and Demons (#18), but losing to The Da Vinci Code at #10. I'm sure that yesterday's plug in The Daily Kos (with a current average of 283,289 visits a day) doesn't hurt sales -- "the best book this cycle", "you HAVE to get this book", "I'm absolutely smitten". Still, if #15 on amazon still means a bit less than 100 copies a day, that's not a very high proportion of daily buyers among 283,289 Daily Kos readers.
Posted by Mark Liberman at September 22, 2004 10:46 AM