Wooo-eeee, something is weird here
Following the advice of Brett Frischmann at Madisonian Theory (a blog that features the writings of three of my very favorite IP Law Prof colleagues, but don't let THAT frighten you away from them...), I checked out some of Amazon.com's "Purchase Circles." The list for the University of South Carolina includes two diet books, the Chicago Manual of Style, and an Al Franken book. Could Amazon.com possibly be confusing us with that other USC?
Then there is the "Federal Judiciary" list, which includes one diet book; one Franken book, one by Molly Ivins, "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd (a novel set in South Carolina that I liked but almost everyone else in my bookclub HATED), and one "out of print" book ("The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty" by Caroline Alexander) which somehow got the number 2 slot despite being, well, "out of print." The list is topped by "The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke," by Harvard law prof Elizabeth Warren and her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi. Are Federal Judiciary book buyers academically interested in bankruptcy, or severely underpaid?
The "Purchase Circle" for NYU doesn't have any diet books, instead featuring the 2004 Zagat Survey of New York City Restaurants. Pretty cool. Number one on that list, however, is "Handbook of Mortgage Backed Securities" by Frank J Fabozzi. I almost fell asleep just typing the title.