Just put a philosophy book in Bruce Springsteen’s hands. Take a photo of him reading it (pencil in hand) and promote it via social media. Springsteen was recently seen reading James Miller’s Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche. According to Miller’s publishers, sales have seen a bump since the picture appeared. Here is a taste of a Wall Street Journal article on the Boss’s new reading habits:
Since the photo’s release, “Examined Lives,” which was published in 2011, has enjoyed a small bump in sales, said its publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux. “The Boss does have an impact,” said Eric Chinski, editor in chief at FSG. “He had his pencil out in the photo too, so he was obviously reading closely.”
The image came as a surprise to the book’s author, Mr. Miller, a politics and liberal studies professor at Manhattan’s New School for Social Research. “It looked like he was actually reading it, sort of mid-way through. The whole thing floors me,” he said. “It’s not what I would have considered light reading.”
In addition to politics and philosophy, Mr. Miller has written about music since the 1960s and included a chapter on Mr. Springsteen in his book “Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock & Roll, 1947-1977.” He was the original editor of “The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll,” and also wrote about Mr. Springsteen as a critic for Newsweek in the 1980s.
Wonderful! Thanks for posting!