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My junior senator writes a book...
My junior federal senator, a low-seniority member of the minority party in the US Senate, has written a book about her experiences in politics, mostly in the now-ancient twentieth century.
And boy the knives are out. I won't bother to point you to all of the hundreds of vituperations, slanders, and dismissals the book has seen pre-publication; I'll just point to one.
Here's a typical report of a Gallup poll from last week asking, in effect, "Are you eager to read Hillary Clinton's memoir, Living History?".
The headline is
Let's take it for granted that the Gallup poll method was sound and accurately reflects the opinions of the American people. 5% of the American public is eager to read the book; another 39% "may read it some day" (the second-strongest answer; third was "don't plan to read it", which to me is actually the same answer, but I realize that not everyone approaches books the way I do).
There are currently around 280 million people in the United States. That means that approximately 14 million people are "eager" to read this book. (Another 109 million "may read it someday", but let's not worry about them.)
If every person who is eager to read the book were to buy it in hardcover (they won't, but indulge me), it would sell almost twice as many copies as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which has the largest first printing of any book in history. If only one-tenth(!) of the people who are eager to read the book buy it this month, it will sell out its first printing by June 25, making it a shoe-in as the second best-selling book of the year.
That certainly justifies guessing that the book will be a "bomb". I'm guessing that the right wing is, in fact, completely innumerate.
And boy the knives are out. I won't bother to point you to all of the hundreds of vituperations, slanders, and dismissals the book has seen pre-publication; I'll just point to one.
Here's a typical report of a Gallup poll from last week asking, in effect, "Are you eager to read Hillary Clinton's memoir, Living History?".
The headline is
Will Hillary Clinton's book bomb? Memoir dishes on Monica, but poll shows only 5% 'eager to read' work
Let's take it for granted that the Gallup poll method was sound and accurately reflects the opinions of the American people. 5% of the American public is eager to read the book; another 39% "may read it some day" (the second-strongest answer; third was "don't plan to read it", which to me is actually the same answer, but I realize that not everyone approaches books the way I do).
There are currently around 280 million people in the United States. That means that approximately 14 million people are "eager" to read this book. (Another 109 million "may read it someday", but let's not worry about them.)
If every person who is eager to read the book were to buy it in hardcover (they won't, but indulge me), it would sell almost twice as many copies as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which has the largest first printing of any book in history. If only one-tenth(!) of the people who are eager to read the book buy it this month, it will sell out its first printing by June 25, making it a shoe-in as the second best-selling book of the year.
That certainly justifies guessing that the book will be a "bomb". I'm guessing that the right wing is, in fact, completely innumerate.