Exciting to see this come over the "wire," especially since my second book arrived so late in the year (hard to see how BFA got 8 weeks in for sales given the timing of this announcement).
Kind of weird to see BFA instead of PNM, since Vol. I spent four months (Jan-Apr) on the list while BFA spent only two (Nov-Dec), but there it is.
Nice to see BFA recognized this way. Figure PNM would have made any 2004 year-end list, since it scored 7 months on the list, but Foreign Affairs began the list in March 2004, so I guess they were waiting for a full year to do the end-of-year list.
So this is a nice end-of-year bit of recognition for Vol. II. Gives me hope that I can sell somebody on Vol. III.
Here is the complete "top 20" list of hardcover bestsellers on American foreign policy and international affairs for 2005, based on Jan-Dec sales at Barnes & Noble:
INTL. INTELLIGENCE'Foreign Affairs' lists best-sellers
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Thomas L. Friedman's "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century" has been named the top-selling book in Foreign Affairs' first-ever best-seller list.
The listing is the first ranking compiled by Foreign Affairs, the prestigious bimonthly journal published by the Council on Foreign Relations, in conjunction with Barnes & Noble booksellers.
The list ranks the 20 top-selling books on American foreign policy and international affairs. It includes the text of each book review as written in Foreign Affairs.
The first best-seller list from the house journal of the U.S. foreign policy establishment is as follows:
1. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
2. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Jared Diamond (Viking)
3. China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World Ted C. Fishman (Scribner)
4. The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror Natan Sharansky (PublicAffairs)
5. 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (W.W. Norton & Company; Barnes & Noble Books)
6. The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq George Packer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
7. Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground Robert D. Kaplan (Random House)
8. First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan Gary C. Schroen (Presidio Press)
9. Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Secret Saudi-U.S. Connection Gerald L. Posner (Random House)
10. The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy T.R. Reid (Penguin Press)
11. Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East Clyde Prestowitz (Basic Books)
12. The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God George Weigel (Basic Books)
13. Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War Anthony Shadid (Henry Holt and Company)
14. The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair Martin Meredith (PublicAffairs)
15. Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power David J. Rothkopf (PublicAffairs)
16. America's Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between America and Its Enemies George Friedman (Doubleday)
17. Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating Thomas P.M. Barnett (Putnam)
18. John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics Richard Parker (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
19. The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War Andrew Bacevich (Oxford University Press)
20. The Case for Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can Be Resolved Alan Dershowitz (John Wiley and Sons)
© Copyright 2005 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Here is the link to the list: http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20051215-051645-8397r.