Oprah Ain't the Only One Selling Books

Buy an ad on DigitalJournal.com

But many wondered if the returning host still had the same influence he had this time last year.

As of six this morning author Richard Cohen's book, Strong at the Broken Places: Voices of Illness, a Chorus of Hope (Harper ) was ranked at over 5,000th on the Amazon.com best sellers list.

Cohen had spent three years chronicling the lives of five diverse "citizens of sickness": Denise, who suffers from ALS; Buzz, whose Christian faith helps him deal with his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; Sarah, a determined young woman with Crohn's disease; Ben, a college student with muscular dystrophy; Larry, whose bipolar disorder is hidden within.

Strong at the Broken Places is the story of five ordinary people trapped in the complex world of serious chronic illness. In this intimate tale, Mr Cohen shares these “lives of sickness as these individuals struggle to cope.”

Today Mr. Cohen, who had detailed his own battle with MS in his previous bestselling book Blindsided, sat down today with Don Imus and discussed his book.

And the I-Nation responded -- in less than five and a half hours the book had risen to 325th.

How did the “Original Shock Jock” become America's “Origonal Book Pimp?” Imus, and his side kick Charles McCord are both readers and from time to time they would discuss the books on the air. This gave birth to the Imus Money-back Guarantee. “If you buy this book and don't like this it I'll give you your money back.” (which was given to Strong at the Broken Places before the interview even began)

In 1998, angered by the snubbing that ''the elitists,'' as he called awards committees such as The National Book Awards and Pullitzer Prize, bypassed Sam Tanenhaus's biography, 'Whittaker Chambers' (Random House) the year before he really put his money where his mouth is creating the Imus Book Awards.

And he doesn't even make them put a big tacky “I” on the cover.

The I-man time and time again has taken books from every conceivable genre and launched them into national recognition. He could even make a best seller out of the tale of two-bit, party animal congressman, nobody ever heard of. Don't believe me? Does the name Charlie Wilson ring a bell?

From Terrence McCarthy's blog on the movie Charlie Wilson's War :

“...this movie would never have been made if one Don Imus never got behind the wheel of the " Charlie Wilson's War " bandwagon right after the book was published a few years ago. Oprah endorsing Obama pales ( NO PUN!!! ) in comparison to what Imus can do for a book. The book raced to the top of the best seller list, where Hanks saw it, bought the rights, and, of course, the rest is history.”

For more books endorsed by the I-Man over the years, Please visit.

And If you want recommendations on any particular book visit www.SupportImus.org and post a message. I'm sure somebody there has read it.