Not Even Wrong #1 UK bestseller in particle physics

[marcus]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/278434/ref=pd_ts_b_nav/026-8303087-5718006&tag=

The UK edition of Not Even Wrong is running ahead of Lisa Randall's Warped Passages, and Brian Greene's two most popular books: The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, at least according to this amazon.co list.

The link is to the "particle and high-energy physics" bestseller list.

here is a sample as of Monday 11 AM pacific. I have highlighted mass-audience or non-specialist books to show some of the competition, although NEW does not seem to have been intended for mass audience.
===UK amazon bestseller list--particle and high energy physics===

1. Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Continuing Challenge to Unify the Laws of Physics
by Peter Woit

2. Problems and Solutions: Group Theory in Physics
by M. Aivazis

3. Ion Traps (International Series of Monographs on Physics)
by P.K. Ghosh

4. The Particle Odyssey: A Journey to the Heart of Matter
by Frank Close

5. Warped Passages: Unravelling the Universe's Hidden Dimensions (Penguin Press Science S.)
by Lisa Randall

6. Radiation Detection and Measurement 3rd Edition
by Glenn F. Knoll

7. Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics
by Bruce A. Schumm

8. Introduction to High Energy Physics
by Donald H. Perkins

9. Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introduction S.)
by Frank Close

10. The Ideas of Particle Physics: An Introduction for Scientists
by Guy D. Coughlan

11. Particle Physics (Manchester Physics S.)
by B.R. Martin

12. Path Integral Methods in Quantum Field Theory (Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics)
by R.J. Rivers

13. The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
by Brian Greene

14. The Quantum Theory of Fields 3 Volume Set: v. 1-3
by Steven Weinberg

15. Introduction to Elementary Particles
by D. Griffiths

16. The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality (Allen Lane Science S.)
by Brian Greene

17. Symmetry and Beautiful Universe
by Leon M. Lederman
...
...
=======
I have found UK amazon makes errors in generating its lists, sometimes picks the wrong editions etc. So it is not entirely reliable. Plus the list is volatile, it changes hourly. However this can give a rough idea of how sales of NEW are going in UK.

 

[marcus]

I should mention that the UK edition of Smolin Trouble with Physics (which is selling so well in the US) is not planned to come out until February 2007.

so UK amazon is not selling Smolin TwP! (they just refer you to some overseas distributors, if you search)

this is why that book does not show up along with NEW and the others in the UK amazon bestseller listings

 

[marcus]

I should mention that the UK edition of Smolin Trouble with Physics (which is selling so well in the US) is not planned to come out until February 2007.

so UK amazon is not selling Smolin TwP! (they just refer you to some overseas distributors, if you search)

this is why that book does not show up along with NEW and the others in the UK amazon bestseller listings

there has been a sudden change at UK amazon

as of today they are actually SELLING Smolin's book, not just putting a link to overseas distributors

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0618551050/?tag=pfamazon01-20

so they quote a price, and you can click and order it, and they have it paired with Woit's NEW in a package deal

this is new. as of yesterday when I looked they were just referring to some overseas distributors

this means that UK amazon is carrying the US EDITION of the book instead of waiting for the UK edition to come out, planned for February 2007.

maybe they think the two books help each other

BTW NEW is currently #9 on UK amazon "physics" bestseller list
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0618551050/?tag=pfamazon01-20
which is doing pretty good as it's a broad category of book

it also continues #1 on the narrower "particle high energy physics" list

 

[bananan]

hi Peter,

I did read your book, and have some thoughts:

1- I might have expanded as a full-length chapter on the history of extra-dimensions in physics, starting with Kalula-Klein, and how they failed, and what that might mean for string theory

2- I might have expanded as a full-length chapter on the history of GUT theories in physics, such as SU(5) and SO(10), and how they were falsified, and, what's more, how *conservative* they are, in comparison to string theory, and how given several candidate GUT's have been falsified, what this means for string inspired unification scenarios.

3- I might have expanded as a full length chapter history of physical theories that were "falsified" or found to be inconsistent, and what this might mean for string theory.

4- Maybe with a co-author (i.e Rovelli, Ashketar, Penrose, etc.,) I would have written a full-length chapter on quantum gravity, and how supergravity failed, and then the status of string theory as a theory of quantum gravity, and how well it succeeds in this claim.

5- Given more treatment on failed predictions of string theory. Go into detail string's version of particles and the standard model.

6- delete the chapter on string theory and mathematics and bogandov affair. Replace it with the SM and GR as to why they are a physics theory, and string theory, why it is not a physics theory.

7- explain that historically speaking, staying with 4D and observation and experiments have resulted in science, as opposed to speculation.

Dan