Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan made Christopher Hitchens' new Why Orwell Matters into a best-seller. When Sullivan announced early Tuesday morning that Hitch's book would be the next selection in his online book club, the book was ranked 1,074 on Amazon.com's list. Within fifteen hours of Sullivan's announcement, Why Orwell Matters was sitting pretty at #3 (alas, Sullivan's Spears-like power to create trends overnight does not extend to the U.K., where Hitchens' book hovers at a respectable ranking of 2,157). Here is the blurb that did the work:

I've just finished reading Christopher Hitchens' lively, witty and oddly moving defense of the life and work of George Orwell: "Why Orwell Matters." If you've read all of Orwell (and I'm getting close) or have barely read him at all, the book is both a wonderful introduction to the man's work and a stimulating overview of all the issues he raises. Orwell's ability to confound both right and left, his tenacious honesty, his pellucid prose, his power of moral reasoning, his ability to distinguish between an argument and a feeling - all these come through loud and clear in this little book. Buy it and read it and then join Hitch and me for a weeklong conversation at the end of the month about what Orwell means, and why his example still shines, perhaps more brightly than ever, in an era of war and ideological conflict. Buying the book through this site also helps support us financially, so enrich your mind and support this blog by getting the book today.

If you have watched what's been happening recently on campuses with anything resembling an unjaundiced eye, you'll know that Orwell matters very much indeed--not least because so very many teachers, administrators, and students have forgotten, or never learned, what Orwell has to teach us. I'll be at Sullivan's virtual reading group at the end of the month--and hope you will be too.