Michelle Obama's 'Becoming' is Barnes and Nobles' Fastest-Selling Book of 2018

Released a week ago today, Michelle Obama’s latest book Becoming has become Barnes and Nobles’ fastest-selling book in terms of first week sales. The book has enjoyed the most successful first-week launch of an adult book in over three years and has also surpassed other high profile releases such as Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury and Bob Woodward’s Fear.

As Good Reader reports, the book’s publisher, Penguin Random House, has announced that Becoming sold over 725,000 copies on its first day of release, meaning it’s the publisher’s highest single-day sales of any book this year.

Becoming covers Obama’s childhood growing up in the South Side of Chicago to her time in the spotlight as the first lady of the United States. The book has also made headlines for its criticism of current US President Donald Trump, where Obama writes that she will “never forgive” Trump for spreading the rumour that Barack was not born in the United States.

“What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this I’d never forgive him,” she writes.

In a statement, Liz Harwell, Senior Director of Merchandising, Trade Books at Barnes & Noble, said: “We knew Becoming was going to be one of the biggest books of the year, but it has now officially had the best first week of sales of any book in 2018, and is among the fastest sellers in Barnes & Noble history. This is definitely the must-have book of the holiday season.”

Obama’s recent release is just one of many political books released this year. According to Barnes and Noble in October (just before the midterm elections), there had been a 57 percent boost in the sales of political books.