Harper's Index

The June issue of Harper's has some fascinating stats in the index and I'm compelled to share:

• Percentage of U.S. households that will have a Nintendo Wii by 2011, according to Merrill Lynch: 30 (Excellent progress! Our plan for the Wii-ification of American culture will nearly be complete.)
• (For Moonrat and Nikki) Minimum number of different books sold in the U.S. last year, as tracked by Nielsen BookScan: 1,446,000
• Number of those that sold fewer than 99 copies: 1,123,000
• Number that sold more than 100,000: 483

Yes, those last set of stats are disturbing. HB asked me if I thought I was in the right industry. After some hemming and hawing, I admitted that I have no idea.