Bestselling Dummy

You would think that the title alone of books for dummies would keep people from buying it. If the title doesn't stop you, the contents will since they ca be a little insulting. The fact that these series of instructional books are bestsellers gives credence to the fact that people are more honest about themselves; even if it's only in private. Not since the cartoon books, the [blank] for beginners books (such as Einstein for Beginners, by Michael McGuiness and Joseph Schwartz)-with their brilliant, sick, silly, or funny accompanying cartoons-have I been so informed in such a smooth, quick, and useful way.  I used to collect those [blank] for beginners books, and still enjoy the condensed lessons on Freud, Sartre, and others, for instance.  But I also began a profound appreciation of books for dummies, starting with the books for dummies series edition of Hinduism for Dummies.  I was seriously dating a Hindu who was teaching me the rituals, the philosophies, the ancestral requisites of a complex and ancient religion.  The books for dummies series came to my added aid by providing insets, charts, and special items for consideration sections that made the experience of learning about Hinduism moat manageable. As well, I have used books for dummies for studying and considering starting a non-profit business, for understanding the basics of pc use, and even checked out one title on writing and publishing…for dummies, which is surely a misnomer, oxymoron, or false title, wouldn't you say?   And as you might not want to rely on, trust in, or believe the appeal and usefulness of the books for dummies according to the lowest common denominator-this writer, consider the numbers of copies sold for such titles as Golf for Dummies, selling 150,000+ copies, and Internet for Dummies, selling 374,000+ copies. Right, we are not dummies, per se, but we may be dumb or better, numb, about a topic, a skill, a craft, a culture, or a lifestyle…whereby books for dummies is not only an appropriate general series title but are books that truly do help us smarten up about the same.  And there's no shame in using books for dummies.  Hell, the practice of consulting such a series cannot be any more humiliating (if that's the premise of the nay-sayers) than studying Einstein's theory of relativity by way of comic books or any more embarrassing than learning to fire an army tank by following the hub directions by way of the tank cover's directions…done in cartoons.

 

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