In America, as in most cultures, you risk offending people if you callthem dumb or an idiot to their faces. You also risk a punch in thenose.
And yet by the millions, people are buying books withtitles like . When we don't know a thing about meditation or buyingstocks or speaking Bulgarian, we're happy to be insulted. Go rightahead: call us dummies on the cover of your book. Just show us how tolay tile or knit a sweater.
And for 17 years, that's exactlywhat a seemingly endless stream of books, written in a breezy mannerwith lots of illustrations and simple instructions, has done.
Wanta tattoo? There's to getting one. A yappylittle dog? will tell you all there is to knowabout them. There's whateverthat is. And Chronic , leaving us to wonder wheresmart people go to deal with pain.
More than 125 million copiesin the Dummies series alone have sold since the first Dummies book ?about a computer program called DOS ? was published in 1991. Eversince, Dummies and Idiots books have promised to teach us how togarden, learn religions, paint walls, even raise our kids.
Dummiesbooks have been translated into 39 languages and published in 40countries, so all the idiots are no longer in America. There are nowdummies videos, too.
You name it ? chess, vampires, foreclosedhouses ? there's a Dummies or Idiots book about it. There's even onecalled Biochemistry for Dummies. But no . . . yet!