300% rise in booksales

Here is proof that one needs to write just the right books for the times:

German media have reported that bookstores nationwide have seen a 300% increase in sales of the book in recent months.

The book: Das Kapital, by Karl Marx.

Quite an achievement considering that at the same time:

* E-book sales rose 73% to $5.2 million.
* Adult mass market rose 6.3% to $65.3 million.
* Children's/YA hardcover rose 0.8% to $86.4 million.
* Professional and scholarly sales slipped 4.4% to $46.3 million.
* Audiobook sales dropped 9.1% to $18.4 million.
* University press paperbacks fell 13.9% to $4.2 million
* Children's/YA paperback fell 14.8% to $43.8 million.
* University press hardcovers dropped 20.4% to $6 million.
* Adult paperback dropped 23% to $95 million.
* Adult hardcover fell 25% to $246.2 million.
* Religious books fell 25.6% to $57.1 million.

Publisher of Das Kapital attributes the huge rise in the book's popularity to:

"The financial crisis brought us a huge bump."

He suggested that it was younger Germans who were buying the book unhappy with the direction their elders had led the country.

"There's a younger generation of academics tackling hard questions and looking to Marx for answers," Mr Schuetrumpf said.

The Capital by Karl Marx is available as a free download (pdf).