9/11 report a best seller as public snaps it up

By Tyrone Beason
Seattle Times staff reporter

MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES Anita McMullen of Seattle leafs through a copy of "The 9/11 Commission Report" at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park yesterday.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Related stories "We are not safe," says 9/11 report

"The 9/11 Commission Report" (W.W. Norton, $10) leaped to No. 1 book on Barnes & Noble's online book site and No. 1 at Amazon.com.

Local booksellers such as The Elliott Bay Book Co., University Book Store and Bailey/Coy Books were also selling copies of the report.

It is also available through the Government Printing Office for $13.25 (including shipping and handling). Copies can be ordered through the GPO Web site: www.gpoaccess.gov. Click on the icon with the report's cover.

The entire report is downloadable for free online at www.9-11commission.gov, the 9/11 panel's official Web site.

The publisher, Norton, printed 600,000 copies of the book and shipped more than 500,000 copies to booksellers yesterday, spokeswoman Louise Brockett said. "What we've heard is that it's moving very briskly all over the country."

Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, Calif., sold out by noon. Customers of Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., bought 60 copies in about four hours.

In New York, even before the commission held the news conference to which the book's public sale was timed, customers filled bookstores throughout Manhattan. Many had called days ahead to reserve copies and some waited patiently for the 11:30 a.m. embargo time.

Brockett described the release itself as unprecedented. "I don't believe that a commission report has ever been released to the public in book form on the same day it was presented by the commission," she said.

But that's what members of the 9/11 panel wanted: for the public to have immediate access to the report and engage in a dialogue about national security, Brockett said.

The document, written by what is formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, details events leading up to and following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
 
It points to a number of opportunities the Bush and Clinton administrations had to curtail the threat posed by al-Qaida terrorists who carried out the plot, and it recommends changes to national-security efforts to prevent further attacks.

When Commission Chairman Thomas Kean said last May that Norton would publish the report, he said he wanted "the public to read the commission's findings, evaluate its recommendations and engage in a dialogue on how to improve our nation's security."

Commission members initially were skeptical of Kean's idea of same-day publication, fearing security breaches. But they eventually came around to Kean's way of thinking after he stressed the need for the public to have immediate access.

Brockett said Norton was chosen on the basis of affordability, accuracy, availability and longevity. By that she said she meant that the report would be printed in its unedited entirety and be in print for years to come.

"Norton views this as a historic document," she said. "We will keep this in print for generations."

Tyrone Beason: 206-464-2251 or tbeason@seattletimes.com

Information from Gannett News Service and the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.