Posted 10:37 AM by Scoobie Davis

Quantification Sophistry

Do book sales validate a person’s ideas? Well, if book sales are anything like movie box office receipts, then the answer is no. Movie box office sales for 2002 just topped 2001 numbers, making 2002 a record year. Some of the hits, such as Signs, deserved to be hits. Other hits, such as Sweet Home Alabama, were pap. Some good films like Auto Focus did nothing at the box office.

A similar situation exists with book sales. Slander, an intellectually dishonest book was number one on the bestseller lists for weeks. Al Gore’s books did not sell. As I write this, Savage Nation by Michael Savage—which hasn’t even been released, is number 20 on Amazon.com. Of course, I haven’t read the book yet, but if it reflects the thoughts that are aired on Savage’s radio show (e.g. yesterday, Savage referred to Trent Lott’s hateful words in his paean to Strom Thurmond as “innocent comments”) then the book is crap. By the way, Savage’s radio show has ads for an herbal pill for sexual dysfunction.