Terrorist acts arouse appetite for knowledge
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many Americans have headed to bookstores searching for information on Islam, Middle East politics, the Taliban, Osama bin Laden, and the work of a French physician and astrologer named Nostradamus who wrote a book of purported prophecies in 1555.
Even in Hawai'i, more than 4,000 miles away from the terrorist attacks, demand for such books shot up.
"We've seen a massive increase in interest" in these subjects, said Pat Banning, owner of BookEnds in Kailua. "We're sold out of everything we had."
She said the surge happened almost immediately, with customers rushing in on the day more than 6,000 people were killed. Maps, atlases, books on the Middle East — "People want anything they can get," she said. "The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus" was gone within hours.
James Tamayose, store manager at Barnes & Noble in the Kahala Mall, said they noticed an increase in interest, with a lot of requests for books by Nostradamus.
Same for Borders Books Music & Cafe at Ward Centre, which is sold out of most of their selection on Islam, the Taliban, bin Laden and the popular prophet who some claim predicted the attacks. Books showing the old New York City skyline or photos of the World Trade Center are sold out.
"Normally, these books are not that popular," said Barron Oda, bookseller at the Ward Centre location. "Now everybody is looking for them."
Like Barnes & Noble, Borders didn't have a wide selection of books on these subjects. But booksellers are bringing them in and customers can place orders for specific titles.
Any book on Islam or the Middle East, said Carla Cohen of Washington, D.C.'s Politics & Prose store, "became a best seller" last week. For example, she has sold out of Thomas L. Friedman's Middle East overview, "From Beirut to Jerusalem," which won the 1989 National Book Award.
People want to know more, Cohen said. "With the best intentions, they are asking, 'Is there something about Islam that we don't understand?' "
The extent of this increase interest is evident on the Internet.
Topping Amazon.com's best-sellers list are "Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War," "Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center" and "The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism." Nearly every book on its Top 25 list have to do with Islam, terrorism, bin Laden or Nostradamus.
"I think it's a good thing," Banning said. "I don't think there's such a thing as too much information on a subject like this. The more we educate ourselves, the better we can cope with it."
Although many of these titles are already sold out, customers are ordering:
- "A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Rise of the Modern Middle East" by David Fromkin.
- "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia" by Ahmed Rashid.
- "Germs: America's Secret War Against Biological Weapons" by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William Broad.
- "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America" by Yossef Bodansky, the director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. Out in hardcover in 1999 by Prima Publishers, a $17.95 trade paperback will arrive in early October.
Undergoing re-release is Eric Darton's "Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York's World Trade Center" (Basic Books). And two quickie books are due: "God Bless America" (ReganBooks), a literary anthology expected by year's end; and "09/11 8:49 AM: Documenting America's Greatest Tragedy," due Sept. 30 from Booksurge.com and Blueear.com.
Self-help has not surged, nor have parents been buying serious books for their children. At Barbara Bookstore in Chicago's Sears Tower, one man bought the second through fourth Harry Potter books for himself. "This is all I can handle right now," he said.
Diedre Donahue of USA Today and Advertiser staff writer Catherine Toth contributed to this report.
