Myth of the Rational Market is a New York Times bestseller. Sort of

In what has come as something of a surprise to everyone involved, Myth of the Rational Market has landed on what the New York Times calls its "extended" bestseller list. That is, not in the top 15, but in the top 35. See:

NYT extended

This list hasn't been published yet. In fact, it will never be published in the actual book review. It will show up online the weekend of Aug. 2. But everybody who's anybody in the book business got the pdf yesterday (July 22). It's magic!

The book's inclusion on the list was a surprise because it fell off the Wall Street Journal business bestseller list a couple of weeks ago, and hasn't exactly been tearing up the charts on Amazon.com lately either (it's been doing fine, mostly bouncing around the 200s, but it didn't make the NYT list the week it hit #30 on Amazon, so …). The only explanation we could come up with was that my appearance on Diane Rehm's radio show last week did the trick. That, and the fact that one can now actually find the book in most bookstores.

Anyway, it's all very exciting, and I plan to spend the rest of my life insisting that people refer to me as a "New York Times extended bestselling author."

Myth of the Rational Market on the Daily Show

[I can’t get the embedded Daily Show video that used to be here to work any more; but you can see it here.]

That was nice, huh? I got the call at about 7:30 Wednesday morning that the night’s guest had canceled and they were thinking about having me on as the replacement. Turns out it was Henry Waxman, who was in the hospital (they say he’s feeling better now). By about 10 a.m. it was definite that I was going to be the night’s guest. So I got my Daily Show gig. My line about the babies in high heels, in case you’re wondering, is a reference to this very funny segment.