Foreign presidents prompt rush to book stores

By Andy Goldberg Sep 28, 2006, 5:16 GMT

Los Angeles - US President George W Bush is infamous for his lack of literary skills, but he could take a page out of the book skills of two of his counterparts.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf found his own autobiography, In the Line of Fire, in sixth spot Wednesday on the list of Amazon.com bestsellers.

Also in prominent position was a dense treatise on US foreign policy by leading left-wing linguist Noam Chomsky. His 2003 book, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, took the top spot on the list last week after it was recommended to the world by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez during his blistering condemnation of Bush before the UN General Assembly,

A week later it remains in second spot as gleeful publisher Henry Holt ordered an extra print run of 25,000 copies.

Both successes go against the grain of the US book market, which has traditionally shown little interest in international politics - and even less in international politicians unless they are tainted by sex or other scandal.

But with America's entanglement in Iraq and Afghanistan sparking a new found interest in foreign policy, a spate of priceless publicity has thrown these two books to the top of the literary pile.

It not clear that Bush will ever read either of the weighty tomes - although he admitted to reading Albert Camus' classic, The Stranger, during summer leave. Bush doesn't even read newspapers, preferring to let his aides come up with a daily digest of what's in the nation's press.

But even if he doesn't read the Musharraf memoir or the Chomsky diatribe, their success has caused such a flurry of excitement in the US press that he has clearly heard of them.

The New York Times even proclaimed Chavez 'the latest publishing tastemaker' and a worthy candidate to take over from talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, whose book club has the power to crown books as bestsellers overnight.

Chavez held up the 301-page Chomsky tome in the same UN speech in which he called Bush the 'devil,' urging his audience 'very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it.'

Calling it an 'excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century,' Chávez added, 'I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house.'

The recommendation catapulted the book by the 77-year-old Chomsky from obscurity to the top of the Amazon list, and it remained a bestseller a week later.

'Across every account, we are seeing a dramatic increase in sales. Demand is not slowing down,' Holt publicist Tara Kennedy said Wednesday.

Musharraf's PR onslaught culminated Tuesday night in his precedent-setting appearance on the top-rated news spoof TV show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

He was the first sitting head-of-state to appear on the show and Stewart greeted his honoured guest with tea and twinkies - an 'inedible American delicacy' explained the fake anchorman.

'Is it good?' Stewart asked, before quickly changing the subject and asking 'Where's Osama bin Laden?'

'I don't know,' replied a laughing Musharraf. 'You know where he is? You lead on, we'll follow you.'

That wasn't the only gag in the exchange, which came after the normally sombre army general had done an exhaustive round of interviews on US talk shows in which he pontificated on his autobiography's most sensational assertion: that the US had threatened to bomb Pakistan back to the stone age unless it cooperated with the fight against the Taliban.

Musharraf expounded on that theme with Stewart, revealing that he carefully considered the consequences of taking a confrontational attitude with the US.

But most of the interview was more light-hearted, including a segment in which the President and the comic joked about the two failed attempts on Musharraf's life.

In his quest to boost his book sales, Musharraf even agreed to undergo the ordeal of the 'Seat of Heat,' in which the guest is asked a final question as red lights flash around the studio.

'George W Bush and Osama bin Laden - be truthful - who would win a popular vote in Pakistan?' asked Stewart.

'I think they'll both lose miserably,' replied Musharraf.