In the news: George Orwell's 1984 is flying off the shelves [Poll]

In the news: George Orwell’s 1984 is flying off the shelves [Poll]

2013-06-12 · by Daniel ·

[Don’t forget to take the poll at the bottom and leave your comments if you’ve read the book]

If they haven’t already, apparently, a lot of people are planning on reading George Orwell’s classic dystopian novels, Animal Farm and 1984. In the wake of the NSA snooping–allegations of listening in on Verizon customers and the PRISM program that supposedly tracks electronic communications through sites like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others–George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 and his much shorter (and more readable) Animal Farm have seen a surge in sales.

Sales of at least three editions of 1984 have skyrocketed in recent days, according to Amazon’s Movers & Shakers page, which tracks items with the biggest positive sales change over the past 24 hours. Sales of the Centennial Edition of the book, for instance, had increased by more than 4,000 percent as of Tuesday afternoon. The book was ranked fifth on the Movers & Shakers list at press time.

(Orwell’s Animal Farm, another dystopian classic, has also seen an increase in popularity of more than 250 percent.)

Ironically, I happen to be among the recent readers, though to my credit I can claim to have started reading it before the NSA leaks.

Will you be reading it anytime soon? Have you read it? And do you think it applies? Or are you more of a Aldous Huxley type?

Please take the poll and leave your thoughts on Orwell’s book in the comments.