SCOTT SIMON, host: This week Amazon released a map of the United States that reflects the bestselling political books bought by their customers. Most of the map looks pretty red. Texas and Florida are deep red. Pennsylvania and Missouri are tinged pink. Amazon says customers there have been buying the new Sarah Palin biography, a book called "48 Liberal Lies About American History," and Chuck Norris' "Black Belt Patriotism." The deepest blue areas are Vermont, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. New York and California are powder blue. Customers there have been buying all three of Barack Obama's books, an election guide from Michael Moore, a book charging President Bush with murder, and a satire of the children's book "Goodnight Moon" called "Goodnight Bush."</s>SCOTT SIMON, host: But four years ago, the bestseller list was packed with titles that included Bill Clinton's autobiography, John Dean's "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush," Kevin Phillips' book on the Bush's called "The Politics of Deceit," and several more titles in the same vein. So making political predictions based on bestseller lists is probably like trying to put lipstick on a pig, just to coin a phrase.
A new map examines political books about the candidates that people are reading. It determines which states are blue or red based on the their reading preferences.