This Week's Bestsellers: February 5, 2018

Chappelle Shows Influence

The memoir Pimp by Iceberg Slim, published in 1967 by Holloway House, sold a reported two million copies within a few years of its publication and, as Robin D.G. Kelley wrote in a 2015 New Yorker article, took “the cartoon image of the pimp projected in urban rhymes and strutting street characters and [gave] him flesh, history, and dimension, exposing the dehumanizing brutality of ‘the game.’ ”

Atria imprint Cash Money Content re-released Pimp in 2011 and by the end of 2017 it had sold 27K print copies. Then Dave Chappelle related a story from the book on his Netflix special The Bird Revelation. Sales have climbed ever since, and four weeks later Pimp sold more in one week than it did in all of 2017 or 2016.

(See all of this week's bestselling books.)

Self-Improvement Sells

Four weeks into 2018, “new year, new you” books are still going strong. The #2 book in the country is 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto who came to public attention in 2016 when he posted a three-part video series titled “Professor Against Political Correctness.” His YouTube channel now boasts 720K subscribers.

At #4 in hardcover nonfiction, Rise and Grind, by FUBU founder and Shark Tank cast member Daymond John, aims to teach readers to “outperform, outwork, and outhustle your way to a more successful and rewarding life.” Get Better, #11, is by Todd Davis, chief people officer at Franklin Covey, which was cofounded by The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People author Stephen R. Covey.

Movie Watch

Opening Feb. 23, Every Day is a love story between a teenager and a spirit who inhabits a different body each day. It was adapted from the 2012 novel of the same name by David Levithan, v-p and publisher at Scholastic and the author and coauthor of two dozen YA novels. The tie-in edition debuts at #19 in children’s & YA frontlist fiction; the conventional trade paperback has sold almost 195K copies.

New & Notable

All-American Murder
James Patterson and Alex Abramovich
#3 Hardcover Nonfiction, #4 overall
Written with former PW deputy reviews editor Mike Harvkey, this true-crime tale follows Alex Hernandez, a tight end for the New England Patriots who was convicted of murder and found dead in his jail cell in 2017, an apparent suicide.

Judgment Road
Christine Feehan
#1 Mass Market, #6 overall
Feehan, a paranormal romance author whose books have sold more than eight million print copies, launches the Torpedo Ink series, centered on a motorcycle club of the same name.

Top 10 Overall

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.