(no subject)

[andrew_jorgensen]

I don't think it would come as any surprise that Tyler Cowen of George Mason University and Marginal Revolution knows something I don't -- it's probable he knows quite a bit I don't -- but I am surprised to find that one fantasy I've enjoyed is, instead, fact:

What were the most blogged about books in 2005?

Here is a New York Times list, no permalink yet. The data are drawn from an automated survey of the top 5000 blogs. Freakonomics, Harry Potter, Blink, and The World is Flat lead the list. Jared Diamond has two in the top ten. Surowiecki's Wisdom of Crowds is #12. The first work of fiction is The da Vinci Code at #10. Orwell and Narnia are not far behind. I conclude, tentatively, that the blogosphere is increasing the influence of non-fiction books, relative to fiction.

Well, that explains that bespectacled punk who keeps coming around claiming that my Pinewood Derby trophy is some sort of "horcrux."

Comments

[rebekahroxanna.livejournal.com]

Boy, it has taken me a long time to understand your post (I still don't understand the last sentence, though). I was thinking of some fantasy that was, well, fantasy, like longing for tropical islands to go diving in, Palau and Yap come readily to mind, or perhaps traipsing around northern Africa in search of an eclipse. Not fantasy as a book. What was the name of the guy who was at Cleveland state who wrote for Scientific American who had kids in the Cleveland Heights schools? Or maybe he just lived in Cleveland Heights.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Well, that explains that bespectacled punk who keeps coming around claiming that my Pinewood Derby trophy is some sort of "horcrux."

ROFL at the imagery.

Now I'm going to have to imagine the HP crowd intruding at random into people's house to ask if their is a horscrux, in a Brazil/Time Bandit fashion.

the Times Union picked up this on music

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/12/13/study_online_music_sharing_can_spur_sales/

Btw, did you read Collapse orBlink?

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

"Top 5000 blogs". What's the criterion for that? Hit count? And here I thought blogging was supposed to be the ultimate democratic medium. But it's gotten elitist.

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

Look, the fact of the matter is that Harry Potter is at least as "real" as anything produced by the mind of Thos. Friedman. I mean, if I had a tought foreign policy decision to make and no one else to ask, I'm pretty sure I'd go with JKR's advice over TF's.

On a side note, I was disheartened (though not surprised) to read, in a recent CCT featurette on summer reading, that a certain Dean Yatrakis cited The World Is Flat as her #1 read of Summer 2005, calling Friedman "brilliant" and claiming that he "writes beautifully." No wonder my Columbia undergrads can't construct a lucid argument to save their souls.....