One of the fun things (depending on how one defines "fun") of the Trump era: The news cycle burns so fast and furious that last week's national phenomena are this week's distant memories, drowned out by five fresh controversies.
Quick Trivia quiz: Who was the author of bestselling White House tell-all tome Fire and Fury?
Was it:
A) Rob Porter
B) Devin Nunes
C) Michael Wolff?
It's easy to get confused (Porter was last week's controversy —now forgotten — who had to quit the White House for being a serial wife beater; Devin Nunes was the previous week's "#ReleaseTheMemo" controversy that was supposed to bring down the Mueller investigation until it was released and didn't actually bring down anything). The correct answer was C) Michael Wolff - his insider scoop Fire and Fury was all anyone was talking about way back in the early days of 2018, 5 whole weeks ago. But as you can see from Thinknum's data trail, after a good run at #1 he is slilpping into "last week's news".
Alas, it's been bumped from the top 10 by such luminaries as Jordan B. Peterson's 12 Rules for Life, Dr. Mark Hyman's Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?, Madeleine L'Engle's 50-year-old A Wrinkle In Time (new movie!), and Dav Pilkey's controversial Dog Man and Cat Kid.
Wolff must be so frustrated - it's understandable that he would storm off an Australian news show this week ("Why am I even IN Australia? I should be on CNN, dammit!")
On the positive side, despite its slip in the daily ranking, its successful run of the past six weeks means it (at least for the moment) still ranks as the #1 seller of 2018 (so far).
For a book that was intensely controversial, it's pretty highly-ranked (I wonder if Amazon has started a troll patrol to trim out the negatives? Hillary Clinton's book had a ton of one-star ratings before it was even released....)
And the volume still tops out at #1 in several Amazon categories:
- #1 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > United States > Executive Branch
- #1 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Political Science > History & Theory
- #1 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > United States > National
Michael Wolff himself still ranks pretty high across several Amazon categories:
Amazon Author Rank
- #7 in Books > History
- #11 in Kindle eBooks > History
- #14 in Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs
- #18 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs
Never fear, though... Wolff will get another shot at relevance. The Hollywood Reporter says Fire and Fury has been snapped up by Endeavor Content for a forthcoming TV series!
In the interests of equal time, we think it's only fair to give the final word to President Trump: