Harry Potter Beaten by 'Idiots'

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Harry Potter Beaten by 'Idiots'

August 04, 2005
By Patrick Eves and Anna Weinberg

For the past two weeks, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has, as expected, conquered the bestseller charts. After phenomenal opening-day sales of 4.1 million copies, the book went on to sell 1.7 million copies in its second week, and more than 332,000 during this past week, drowning sales of books by James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell. The book has also been the top-seller in every single one of The Book Standard's 99 local-area charts. But this week, a glimmer of hope appeared for other authors, as The Book Standard charts registered a change—one single change: The Bristol–Kingsport–Johnson City, Tenn., area has a new chart-topper—and it’s not a bestseller from Patterson, or from Cornwell, or even from David McCullough. It’s Surrounded by Idiots, a book of essays written by conservative talk-radio personality Mike Gallagher.

On July 28, during a 21-city tour, Gallagher made an appearance in a car lot and one in a candy store in Tennessee to sign books and broadcast his nationally syndicated radio show on location, becoming the first author in two weeks to best J.K. Rowling. His red, white and blue motor-coach, affectionately called the “Surrounded by Idiots Express,” pulled first into the Lance Cunningham Lincoln Mercury dealership in Knoxville, where about 50 people showed up. The Express then moved on to The Lollipop Shop in Jonesborough, drawing, by owner Jeff Gurley’s estimation, an impressive crowd of 400 to 500 people. “Jonesborough is a town of about 4,000 people,” says Gurley. “We were either the smallest or the second-smallest stop on his tour.” Story continues below ↓

Gurley estimates that about 3.2 million people heard the national broadcast—which began by praising Jonesborough, and went on to address the public display of the Ten Commandments, NASA’s recent troubles and the anti-smoking actions of two New Jersey senators—and thinks it was not only a great way to let people know about Jonesborough, but also an ideal means of getting some of his fellow citizens to his store. “We’re a tourist town, so about 80 percent of my business is from tourists,” says Gurley. “But this was a strictly local audience, so it was nice to get some local people to town as well.” The Johnson City Books-A-Million supplied the books for The Lollipop Shop event, and, according to store manager Anita Perkins, the store sold 253 units at Lollipop and 261 in the store itself.

Gurley isn’t sure he’ll have any more signings at his toy-and-candy store, though he’s very happy with the outcome of the Gallagher event. “I am a small business, so I certainly don’t have a lot of advertising dollars to spurt around,” he says. “I will look for more opportunities like this, where I can make one big splash. This was much better than I thought it could have been.” Gurley himself bought three copies of Surrounded by Idiots, and had all three of them signed. “I’m only on page 17,” he says. “But so far it’s entertaining.”

1. SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS, Mike Gallagher (HarperCollins, Hardcover, 0060737980)
2. HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE, J.K. Rowling (Scholastic, Hardcover, 0439784549)
3. THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEENS, Sean Covey (Fireside, Paperback, 0684856093)
4. NATURAL CURES "THEY" DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT, Kevin Trudeau (Alliance Publishing, Hardcover, 0975599518)
5. DEAN KOONTZ'S FRANKENSTEIN (BOOK TWO: CITY OF NIGHT), Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman (Bantam, Mass Market Paperback, 0553587897)

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