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9/11 report sells out in bay area stores

Waiting lists form for this summer's must-read, fueled by a shared desire to cull the details and make sense of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

By Times Staff Writer
Published July 26, 2004

	[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer] Chris LaFramboise flips through the report Thursday at the Port Richey Books-a-Million.

Bookstore manager Jennie Elledge hasn't seen such demand since the South Beach Diet came out last year.

The 9/11 Commission Report is white hot. By Sunday, bookstores throughout the Tampa Bay region had sold out of the 567-page book, which arrived Thursday. Clerks were compiling long waiting lists of buyers - and that didn't include online orders.

"As soon as the book arrived, we barely had them on the floor before people were asking for them," said Elledge, manager of the Borders store at Tyrone Square Mall.

Nationally, the $10 book topped charts for both Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com over the weekend, prompting comparisons to the Harry Potter series.

"We've had strong, steady sales at the stores and sales continue to be strong at this point across the nation," said Carolyn Brown, spokeswoman for the Barnes & Noble chain. "That type of book always tends to do well across the country because people have been following the (9/11 saga) and are very interested in getting their hands on the report so they could study it and come up with their own opinions."

That's exactly why Louiseann Balinsky went in search of a copy Sunday.

The 55-year-old Port Richey woman said she hadn't read or heard much about what's in the report. She wanted to absorb the text herself and find her own answers. She said she's trying to keep an open mind until she reads the report.

"I think we have to do our own digging and self-educating," she said.

Balinsky was among the disappointed throng Sunday when she went to Books-a-Million on U.S. 19 in Port Richey. The store sold its 100 copies within 24 hours. A new shipment had yet to arrive.

Bookstores around the region expected shipments this week, some as early as today. The book is also available online through the Government Printing Office at http://bookstore.gpo.gov/911commission.html The GPO price $13.25.

Publishers W.W. Norton & Co., which printed the book, told the Chicago Tribune last week that any windfall profits from it will be given to charity. Not everyone is ga-ga over the report.

Carla Jimenez, owner of Inkwood Books, an independent bookstore in Tampa, said she doesn't plan to read it.

"To me, it's something I can find out for myself from news sources," she said.

Jimenez also scoffed at comparing the report's popularity to Harry Potter books.

The store has been able to keep up with demand, she said, and no one has lined up outside the store to get a copy, a common occurrence for Harry Potter releases.

However, the report did engross Jimenez's employee, Anthony Finney.

He is about 300 pages into it, and he didn't even plan to read it. When one of the store's copies was damaged, Finney took it home. He opened it and couldn't put it down.

"I think a lot of people are interested in the details now," he said. "Previously, I think people were just so emotionally drained from hearing about it, about Sept. 11."

It was the human element that fascinates Finney.

He was particularly interested in the hijackers' actions leading up to the attacks.

"You find yourself saying, "Hmm, I wonder if anyone would notice those things now and think they were suspicious?' "

Most Inkwood customers bought the book as "an impulse buy," Jimenez said.

She recalled one customer, though, who bought it to add to her clippings about 9/11, which she plans to give to her grandchildren so they can understand the enormous impact of the terrorist attacks.

It's that historical significance that makes the report so intriguing, said Jim Olson, manager of Barnes & Noble at 213 N Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa.

"There have been previous government reports that haven't sold as well," he said.

Olson said customers feel it's important to know what really happened on and around Sept. 11. He agrees. The day the report came out, he thought it would sell out quickly. So he, too, bought one before they all disappeared.

- Staff writers Abbie VanSickle, Janette Neuwahl and Molly Moorhead contributed to this report.

[Last modified July 25, 2004, 23:47:19]