When Thomas Jefferson wrote about the electorate’s need to educate itself, would he have been OK with Hillary Clinton coloring books? After all, what voters read come campaign season may offer some hint of what’s on their minds. So while Super Tuesday voters have spoken, the general election still looms. And while recent nationwide sales of Donald J. Trump’s memoir “Crippled America’’ far outstrip those of all the other presidential candidates, the largest independent booksellers in blue-state Boston have seen sales leaning a different way.
Ahead of her Massachusetts primary win Tuesday, Clinton (“Hard Choices’’), along with Bernie Sanders (“Outsider in the White House’’), saw more buyers than did candidates to the right. Besides the Democratic duo’s memoirs, Clarissa Hadge of Trident Booksellers and Cafe named Tim Rall’s “Bernie,’’ a graphic novel about the Vermont senator, as another popular pick.
Meanwhile, at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, general manager Carole Horne has seen Clinton’s popularity surge among a younger crowd; Cynthia Levinson’s youth-oriented bio “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Do All the Good You Can’’ is doing particularly well, as is a Hillary coloring book. At Wellesley Books, events coordinator Jane Stiles said, 89 Hillary action figures have sold since the holidays.
Massachusetts’ other primary winner hasn’t been without interest, though. Hart Seely’s “The Bard of the Deal,’’ which rewrites The Donald’s quotes and tweets in Shakespearean meter (“And in my residential buildings/I sometimes use flash/Which is a level below glitz’’), is a top pick lately at Trident, Hadge said.
Interestingly, it turns out that nonfiction political science titles have outperformed biographies and campaign tomes among local readers. Dana Brigham of Brookline Booksellers named E.J. Dionne Jr.’s “Why the Right Went Wrong’’ and McKay Coppins’s “The Wilderness’’ as big sellers.
If nothing else, Boston readers’ habits show them educating themselves on the issues at hand, something Jefferson could have smiled at. Trump too, has reason to smile. Stiles noted that, over in Wellesley, Trump-themed playing cards have far outsold Hillary’s. It could be anybody’s race.
Joe Incollingo can be reached at joe.incollingo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jk_inco.
