Book becomes overnight hit

Associated Press

"It's a very conflicted situation," said Gillespie, author of "Twin Towers," a scholarly history of the World Trade Center that as of early Thursday topped the Hot 100 list on Amazon.com.

"To the extent that people can find comfort in the book, in a strange way it's satisfying."

The terrorist attacks on the trade center and on the Pentagon have placed all sorts of previously obscure titles on the Amazon.com list. Among them: a second World Trade Center history, books related to Nostradamus and prophecy, and "Fighting Terrorism" by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Gillespie's book was published in 1999 by Rutgers University Press with a printing of 3,000 and had only sold about 2,000 as of the day before the bombings. An additional 15,000 are now being hurried out.