Selling books - right wing, left wing

The article showed up on the Guardian last week, its bold headline asserting a "Republican landslide in Amazon book vote" with the byline "Conservative authors outselling Democrat titles right across the US according to Amazon sales map". The copycats, tweets and re-tweets (e.g., The Economist) took a few days longer, but finally made it, too.

No doubt, "Amazon Election Heat Map 2012 Presented by Amazon Best Sellers - What are Americans Reading?" is a brilliant marketing gimmicks. It is so fresh and cute, even I am providing Amazon with free advertising, adding at least 4 new readers to their web.

For details and explanation, see The Election Heat Map. The Amazon map breaks down sales of 'Blue' and 'Red' books in each of the 50 states, the color codes each state based on the ratio of sold books in it. Amazon classifies "books as red or blue if they have a political leaning made evident in book promotion material and/or customer classification, such as tags".

Why is it smart? Because it takes a hot topic, and leverages the public interest in the muck slinging of the two parties to promote book sales. And the idea is so novel, that it gets tons of free exposure from leading papers all over the world. So people come to the web site, look at what's hot in their state, or other states, and get exposed to books that can re-enforce their existing opinions, while shelling out their dollars to Amazon.

What's more interesting is to look at the lists themselves. As it happens, I am currently reading Atlas Shrugged (wanted to know what all the fuss is about), The Road to Serfdom (ditto), People's History of the United States (thought these people were from 'we the people' but turns out they are from The People's Republic of ...), so that would make me a pinkish (as in more Republican than Democrat). Then again, I just finished two Orwell books (Road to Wigan Pier and Down and Out in Paris and London - thought these were books about inexpensive travel in Europe).

Other things of note:

• Killing Lincoln is a Republican book (is that the one where Lincoln kills the vampires?)
• The God Delusion is a Democratic book (does that mean God is a Republican, and if so, which God - Buddha, Allah, Jehovah, The Trinity, all of the above? There is enough of them to start a war on Mount Olympus).
• Ed Rendell's book falls under Republican books. Bush's book (Decision Points) is more appealing (or appalling) to Democrats.
• Christopher Hitchens (of God is Not Great and The History of Apple Pie fame) is also a Republican favorite.
• Missing completely are cookbooks (Julia Child, Anissa Helou - red camp, Bobby Flay and Fergus Henderson - blue), the Bible (guess not enough Republicans are buying it?), travel books (red), hunting/fishing/guns (blue).

Life seen through Search: Cooking on the road

Prologue


I can't remember why I searched Google for cooking on the road - I have no trip planned, and besides, I rarely cook on the road. I may buy fresh fruit for snacks, or pastries to go with my coffee, and occasionally, when decent food choices are not readily available, I get milk and cereal for breakfast or dinner. But I generally consider the local grub an essential part of the travel experience, and find cooking on the road a detriment to fully enjoying the trip.

But no matter why I searched, the results turned out very different from I had expected. A clear and vivid example of the socio-economic divide in the United States of America and the chasm between social classes emerged. The same was the case with the corresponding Amazon book search.

Logue

Let's start with Amazon. The search results feature Cooking on the Road with Celebrity Chefs which somehow comes above Cooking on the Road - a book by a cycling enthusiast. Also on the list - Spain, a Culinary Road Trip (Mario Batalli, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Bittman and a stunning Spanish actress whose name evades me, drive about in Mercedez Benz sedans, followed by camera crews, and explore Spanish architecture and cuisine - available on DVD) and The Original Road Kill Cookbook. 

In other words, Amazon's audience range from sports fanatics to celebrity chef enthusiasts, from those who scavenge for food, to watchers of famous people dining at posh restaurants.

The Google search is even more varied, with the following entries making it to the top:

• Mark Bittman (again), making a soup from salad bar ingredients at the Sundance Festival, possibly using the coffee pot. Ingenious, delectable, and decidedly upscale. Recipe included, assuming you can find a hotel with a fresh salad bar.
• Michael Ruhlman's equipment list for cooking on the road. You know you are in trouble when you have to lug along the PolyScience Standard Immersion Circulator, but how else would you prepare short ribs, cooked sous vide 48 hours at 140F/60C? I have two things to say about the list - you'd have to be a magician to get it past the TSA (especially those pretty chef knives), and the La Creuset Dutch Oven might tip you over the luggage weight limit. Again, pretty upscale.
• The Rough Guide's article on cooking on the road - this guys left his immersion circulator at home, but did bring a spice bag. Practical suggestions for budget travelers.
  
• THE UNDETECTABLE HOMELESS - one in a series of blog articles about interviews with "(mostly) women who live out of RVs, trailers, trucks, cars..." - with " “camping recipes” that are not only delicious, but cooked in creative ways." Decidedly less upscale.
• Flexible Cooking on the Road: One Recipe Fits All - Go Budget Travel's lord of the dishes, a recipe to rule them all, for the budget traveler: Cajun Jambalaya. Bring your own spice bag. Cheap and practical.
• And finally, a microwave red lentil soup recipe from the Cooking Manager, which may be tough to make (try finding red lentils outside the Middle East), but at least is Glat Kosher.

Again, we see a range of audiences - from the rich and famous, through the middle class, to the broke, to the down and out. Microcosm in a page.

 Epilogue

As was recently pointed out to me, classes have been around for a long time, and the fact that they show up in search results is not all too surprising - it is just a reflection of the normal distribution curve. Still, you don't find this distribution when you search for "Cooking French (British, Indian) Food".

Quickies

I have been busy lately, but do not wish to completely neglect the blogs, so here are a few tidbits...

• The latest Technology podcast from the Guardian interviewed some judges from Young Rewired State, a week long hackathon for British kids. One of the programs that will be developed is animalympics - a cross matching program between the UK Olympic games team and the London Zoo animals. Essentially it answers the questions 'if you were an animal, which would you be?' for each athlete/or animal, using some statistical algorithm correlating data on the participants.
  
  As I was listening, two things came to mind. First, for humanity's sake, let's hope we do not get too many stereotype choices for the weasels, asses, lions and monkeys. Second, wouldn't it be so much better to cross match the current and past Members of Parliament with the London Zoo animals? If nothing else, matching them with animals would be so much easier. We can also try international politicians (George W. Bush the Chimpanzee, Blair the Poodle, anyone.), singers or actors.
  
  
• Poor Shelly does not have enough money and would like to extract some more from Jewish Democrats (according to the Washington Post). Reminds me of the Russian / Chinese saying 'when the crocodile is crying, it means he is hungry'. Shelly deserves a full blog entry (though maybe one should shut up less Shelly will sue individual bloggers to protect his impeccable character). If and when I find the time, I might oblige.
  
  
• Looks like both Democrats and Republicans are engaging in a race to the bottom. There is a saying that one shouldn't mud-wrestle a pig, because sooner or later you realize the pig actually enjoys it. It now seems both pigs are having a good time - and getting money for reality-show style entertainment...