A great graph (along with an attached article) produced by Valdis Krebs shows the links between books bought by the same people. So, if people who bought book A also bought book B then there would be a connection between them. All the connections make an interesting graph where you can see that pretty much all left-wingers stick to left-wing books, and all right-wingers stick to right-wing books.
So, unsurprisingly, people don't tend to seek out all points of view. They want that which will reinforce their previously held beliefs. I know I'm that way, although I do make an effort to seek out debates on which you can hear all points of view. Perhaps that is why blogs are popular - they tend not to have the debates of a message forum, and those debates just confuse matters...
It's interesting to note that certain books such as Manufacturing Consent are far to the left, meaning that anyone who bought those is really not likely to buy anything even close to a right-wing book. The one book that seemed like a bridge is What Went Wrong: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East. So if you get this book, beware lest you cross over to the dark side.
Posted by ahyatt at March 4, 2003 02:55 PM