Fifty Shades of Grey and Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming are two books I never thought I’d mention in the same sentence, but here we are.
Becoming has topped Amazon’s best seller list for 47 days, which is the longest a book has remained at number one since Fifty Shades back in 2012, according to CNN. There’s not a ton of hope to go around right now, so the knowledge that people like our forever first lady’s beautiful and smart book at least as much as they like poorly written fake S&M liberally peppered with interjections of “Holy crap!” is a small victory, but I’ll take it.
The only books that have stayed at number one longer than Becoming are four of the Harry Potter series, The Da Vinci Code, and something called A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.
Penguin Random House, who published the book, hasn’t given exact sales totals, but the book sold 1.4 million copies in its first week, and even sold out in some bookstores around Christmas despite efforts to keep up with demand.
The publisher paid a combined $65 million for Becoming and Barak Obama’s forthcoming post-presidential memoir.