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user-inactivated  ·  3785 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why is Piketty's book a bestseller?

    I'm perhaps being cynical, but I would have to imagine that for most books the number read:number sold is a relatively small ratio, but for Capital the ratio is dismally so.

According to a friend, someone tracked this by looking at the average number of "pages turned" on the Amazon ebook, and the results aren't pretty. Not remotely surprising.

    Then, they had the sad realization that 500 words with snark and no math is easier to digest than 700 pages with heavy math and--I shall assume, though I've not purchased or read Capital--very little humor

Eh, you'd be surprised. He's quite readable. No jokes, but many literary references and constant changes of subtopic keep things pretty light.