Amazon Sales of George Orwell's 1984 Shot Up 7,000% This Week
In the aftermath of recent revelations concerning a top secret government surveillance program aimed at monitoring the personal and private interactions of mostly innocent civilians, many Americans are naturally concerned with what the future might hold for a country being run by an All-Seeing Eye.
So they've turned to the past: According to Amazon's Movers & Shakers countdown, three different editions of George Orwell's alt-history book Nineteen Eighty-Four have shot up hundreds of spots on the chart since news of the NSA's clandestine spying program PRISM broke late last week.
One edition in particular — the Centennial Edition — has exploded in popularity, increasing its sales rank by 7,000% in days.
For what it's worth, 1984's meteoric rise pales in comparison to the popularity of another fast-moving literary sign of the times: Celebrity pawnbroker Les Gold's book of "business wisdom," For What It's Worth, which jumped up 66,659%.