Sunday, December 06, 2009

Physics and Tiger Woods

Did something good actually come from the Tiger Woods debacle of last week? Author John Gribbin probably thinks so because one of his books just received a huge sales boost after it was spotted in one of the photos of Tiger's wrecked vehicle. This kind of thing has happened before, of course, when celebrities or presidents are spotted carrying a book around, but this is a surprise because Gribbin's book is about physics, of all things. Take a look at this picture.


That's a copy of Get a Grip on Physics there on the floorboard. According to Britain's The Independent:
The book deals with the basics of physics, from its earliest developments to cosmology – although there is no mention of what happens when you shunt a heavy SUV into a stationary fire hydrant.
[...]
The book was 2,268th position on the Amazon sales list, up from 396,224th the previous day.
If these numbers are for real, and that's a big if, I wonder how many of the recently purchased copies of Get a Grip on Physics will actually be read. I suspect the percentage read will be very low - not that Mr. Gribbin is likely to care.

4 comments:

  1. Hey, that was/is a bargain book at Barnes & Noble!

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  2. I guess a sudden interest in physics surprises everyone. This one (quite good by the way) will have a place of honour on the nation's shelves alongside the other great unread physics classic, A Brief History of Time.

    Dare we hope this will spark a spate of celebrities spotted reading intellectual works? Lindsay Lohan with a copy of Wittgenstein carefully placed on the passenger seat for photo ops?

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  3. Yeah, Annie, and I'll bet that the Tiger shops there a whole lot. Heck, maybe he even met one of his 10+ lady friends there. :-)

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  4. You must be a real optimist, Melanie, but that would be a fun trend to follow, gotta agree.

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