Amazon has released an “Election Heat Map” for 2012, a map of the U.S., updated daily, which shows bestselling political books by state–separated into blue (liberal) and red (conservative) categories.
According to Amazon, 56% of political books being purchased are “red” and 44% “blue.”
The top 10 “blue” books, as of August 21:
- A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
- The New New Deal by Michael Grunwald (Kindle)
- The New New Deal (hardcover)
- Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
- The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz (hardcover)
- The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
- The Price of Inequality (Kindle)
- Days of Destruction by Chris Hedges
- The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
The top 10 “red books are:
- The Amateur by Edward Klein (Kindle)
- Fool Me Twice by Aaron Klein and Brenda Elliott (Kindle)
- Fool Me Twice (hardcover)
- Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly (Kindle)
- The Amateur (hardcover)
- Obama’s America by Dinesh D’Souza
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (Kindle)
- Leading from Behind by Richard Miniter (Kindle)
- Killing Lincoln (hardcover)
- Atlas Shrugged (paperback)
For the candidates’ books over the past 30 days, Obama’s The Audacity of Hope is outselling Romney’s No Apology, but Ryan’s Young Guns is outselling Biden’s Promises to Keep.
Washington D.C. is the “bluest” part of the country with 78% of purchases swinging left; Mississippi is the “reddest” with 72% of books swinging right.
Laughable Fox News talking points. Check the polls in the swing states for this alleged “indifference” to President Obama.
You might want to brush up on your sainted Ronald Reagan. Seems most of his policies would not have held up to the extreme right-wing ideology espoused these days by your particular party.
Interesting that none of the ‘blue’ books are about Obama, while several of the ‘red’ ones are. Even liberals seem to have grown tired of their messiah.
Personally, I never found Obama inspiring. He uses words in ways that suggest he doesn’t understand what they mean emotionally. They’re simply sounds intended to impress. He’s the exact opposite of Reagan, whose speech writers were amazed that, by using a pause or an emphasis, he could extract more out of a speech than even they thought was there.
I can understand the liberal indifference toward Obama. It must have been over a year since I heard anyone, liberal or conservative, claiming one of Obama’s speeches was inspiring. Voting for him is no longer a vote for him. It’s simply a vote for Big Government and deficits without end, hence the popularity of ‘blue’ books in Washington, D.C.
I doubt A People’s History of the United States belongs on the list. It’s a reader in too many college courses for its sales to mean much. Students read it because they have to read it.