Former POTUS Barack Obama’s memoir, “A Promised Land,” has sold more than 1.7 million copies in its first week.
The book, which was released on Tuesday, November 17, had initially sold more than 887,000 units in the United States and Canada on the first day of its publication, making it the largest first-day sales total for any book published by Penguin Random House.
According to Penguin Random House, the hardcover edition of “A Promised Land” has 4.3 million copies in print in the U.S. and Canada after an initial printing of 3.4 million copies, Penguin Random House said.
“We are thrilled with the first day sales,” David Drake, of Penguin Random House’s Crown Publishing imprint. “They reflect the widespread excitement that readers have for President Obama’s highly anticipated and extraordinarily written book.”
Obama sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a comprehensive interview about the topics he tackled in his personal memoir. During “The Oprah Conversation,” he addressed the battles he had with his vanity and ego throughout his campaign.
“What I found was that seeing your name up in lights, being on television, speaking to large crowds, et cetera — after a while, like anything else, you become accustomed to it,” he told Winfrey. “And what lingers, what lasts, what matters is your own assessment of, ‘What good am I doing?'”
However, he admitted that “a certain amount of megalomania and insanity” is needed when running for president.
“You have to have something in you willing to put yourself through — and your family through — a crazy process,” he said. “But hopefully — and this is where I try to, in the book – to give an honest assessment and to be self-critical about it, hopefully what initially drives you transforms itself into something larger.”
