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What’s with all the Bullshit?

Last year the book On Bullshit by philosophy professor Harry Frankfurt was a surprise bestseller, even reaching #1 on the NYT Bestseller list for one week. That is an amazing commercial success for my friends at Princeton University Press.

The success of that book apparently inspired some other authors:

The golfer John Daly has a new autobiography out this week entitled “My Life in and out of the Rough: The Truth about all the Bullshit you think you know about me.” This book is published by Harper Collins, the same people who published Freakonomics. They were scared to death of the title Freakonomics when my sister Linda Jines first thought it up. I guess they have loosened up a bit.

Then there is “100 Bullshit Jobs … and How to Get Them” by Stanley Bing. This book was also released just this week. Guess who the publisher was? Harper Collins!

Then there was “The Dictionary of Bullshit” which was released two weeks ago. At least that one wasn’t Harper Collins.

Be careful not to confuse “The Dictionary of Bullshit” with “The Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit,” published in February.

Then there is “Bullshit Artist: The 9/11 Leadership Myth” that came out in paperback in March, “Bullets, Badges, and Bullshit” also out in March, and “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City” from last September.

Is this enough bullshit? Apparently not.

On the horizon for release later this month are “The Business of Bullshit” (not “The Dictionary of Business Bullshit,” although you could be forgiven for the mistake) and “Your Call is Important to us: The Truth about Bullshit.”

At least there is a few months respite before “Hello, Lied the Agent: And Other Bullshit You Hear as a Hollywood TV Writer” due out next September.

All I can say is, what the F*** is going on here?


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