JON-2 moves up to #5
on NYT bestseller list
The NYT best-seller list comes with its Sunday issue, so this list will come out this weekend... What does it say of US society when
the #1 non-fiction bestseller on the book's first week out is the autobiography of a member of a rock group?????
SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2011 – After debuting as an instant bestseller,
Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week has moved to No. 5 on the April 3
New York Times bestseller list for hardcover non-fiction. The book also made the Top 10 in the bestseller lists published by
The Wall Street Journal and
Publisher’s Weekly.
Pope Benedict XVI’s second volume on Christ’s life was released worldwide March 10 and covers the last week of Jesus’s earthly life – from his entrance into Jerusalem to his resurrection and appearances to his apostles and other followers.
“It’s great to see Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week move toward No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list,” said Ignatius Press President Mark Brumley. “This book presents Jesus in a powerful way, so we’re excited that so many people are getting the book and getting to know Jesus Christ better through it. During Lent, this is especially important for believers. But it’s also important for nonbelievers and seekers to encounter the real Jesus.”
I must confess that in 2007, I did not bother to check on JON-1's placement in the NYT lists after it came in below #10 (I think around #18) the week it was released. It's not that easy to check back now how it did.
What surfaced first in Goigling it was its third week on the NYT list on June 17, 2007, where it was #8, having been #7 the previous week, and, I now see, it had debuted at #6 on June 3 (what I dimly remember as below #10 would have been after it came down from the top 10. I haven't been able to find out yet how long it stayed on the list and whether that first week's #6 was the highest ranking it received.
The interesting thing about its Week 3 was that Christopher Hitchens's atheist rant God is not great, which came out two weeks before JON-1, was #3 on the list, up one notch from the previous week, and on its 5th week. It was made #1 on the list the week JON-1 came out, and obbviously slipped after that, but it was quite a long-seller. Again, what do best-sellers say about a society that more people seemed to be interested in an atheist anthem than in reading about Christ?
Sidelight: John Paul II's interview-book with Vittorio Messori, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, debuted at #2 on the NYT list in November 1994 and climbed to #1 on its second week. I do not yet know how long it stayed on the Top 10....
While doing random searches on the above, I came across the blurb quoting Cardinal Ratxinger and used for Jacob Neusner's A Rabbi Talks to Jesus in 1993:
By far, the most important book for the Jewish-Christian dialogue in the last decade. The absolute honesty, the precision of analysis, the union of respect for the other party with carefully grounded loyalty to one’s own position characterize the book and make it a challenge especially to Christians, who will have to ponder the analysis of the contrast between Moses and Jesus.
In other words, the cardinal saw in Neusner's book the very essence of inter-religious dialog that he has always promoted, especially now that he is Pope, and that is found in his own writings.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 30/03/2011 02:12]