A July 18 appearance on Oprah (his third) takes Bob Greene's Get with the Program right to the top of the national charts once again. On the show, Greene and Oprah checked on the progress of three women who, during his first appearance, made a six-month commitment to follow Greene's diet program. All were successful, losing from 23 pounds to 33 pounds each. Another woman, a health reporter for CNN Headline News, discussed how she lost 90 pounds by following Greene's diet plan. That was enough to get the book back on the charts in the top position. Back in mid-January, when the three women began the diet program, the book jumped to the top of the charts and stayed on PW's list for five weeks; the second show got Greene's book back in the #5 position in mid-March, and it stayed on the charts for three weeks. Simon & Schuster has gone back for a fifth printing of 20,000 copies, for a total of more than 326,000 copies in print.
'Tis the season for diet books. Landing on the top of the trade paperback list this week is the Quill edition of Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution by Dr. Robert C. Atkins. The Avon mass market also moved up from the #12 spot to the #4 spot. It has been on PW's list for almost five years and has more than 11 million copies in print. The 2001 update alone has more than 1,350,000 copies in print after 11 trips to press. A front-page story in the New York Times Sunday magazine earlier this month that discussed the merits of the diet turned out to be a weighty sales catalyst.
