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comment by user-inactivated
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.





b_b  ·  3785 days ago  ·  link  ·  

If you dig that up, post it here. I'd be interested in how it stacks up to others. It's probably a bit hard to find a great set of comparisons. How many other academic books have reached cult status? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

kleinbl00  ·  3785 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The obvious parallel is Limits to Growth.

user-inactivated  ·  3785 days ago  ·  link  ·  

On Bullshit, but it was small an not at all technical.

user-inactivated  ·  3785 days ago  ·  link  ·  

None recently. In Bryson's 1927 he talks about a couple, but I can't think offhand what they were. Pseudosciency stuff but still academic.