Michael Hartford

I checked the “sales rank” information on two books by Keith Hale, a friend of mine from graduate school, and found that the “mystery” continues.

The first book, “Friends and Apostles,” a collection of Rupurt Brooke’s letters, has a sales rank (of 975,646; come on people, we can do better than this! Where’s the love for British poets of the Great War?). It’s #1 in the category “Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Brooke, Rupert.” Its other categories all have to do with biography, memoir, literary criticism, and letters.

The second book, “Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada,” is a reissue of the very popular gay coming-of-age novel “Cody,” with the original Dutch publication’s title and art. Despite having 23 reviews and 4.5 stars, this book has no sales rank. Its category is “Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Fiction > Gay.”

Meanwhile, “A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality” remains the top result when searching Amazon for “homosexuality” (sales rank 128,083).