Tag: Literature

[118]

X is a 2010 bestselling fiction book, the fifth in its series, that edged out former US President George W. Bush’s memoir Decision Points (which was released on the same day) in sales in its first week of publication.

What book is this?

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, the fifth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. Ugly Truth sold 548,000 copies in its first week of publication, compared to Decision Points' 437,000 copies.

[104]

In 1943, noted philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre released what is commonly considered his most influential existential philosophical work, a monolithic 722-page tome bearing the equally weighty title of Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology.

One might expect that, with that name and that subject matter, the book would be nigh unknown to the general public, likely only finding an avid audience in tweed-wearing, high-thinking, pipe-smoking professorial types frequenting smoky salons, quaint libraries, and lecture halls — and yet, Being and Nothingness was (relatively) a runaway success upon publication, gaining purchase even among grocers and shopkeepers, and most notably, women*.

What peculiar reason caused the unforeseen popularity and amazing sales of this book?

Show Answer
The book weighed almost exactly one kilogram, and was therefore sought out to serve as a measure of weight at home and in shops -- the Nazis had confiscated and melted down the regular brass and copper weights to use in munitions.

*Bear in mind that this was in 1943, a time when women's intellectual prowess was not exactly respected in higher academic circles.