'Fire And Fury' Expected In Austin On Monday (The Book, That Is)

AUSTIN, TX — The controversial and highly in-demand political book "Fire and Fury" won't be distributed to Austin until Monday, Jan. 8. But even then, you'll be hard-pressed to get your hands on a copy if you didn't reserve one of purchase.

The book by Michael Wolff is a juicy (some might say gossipy) account of the Trump White House, depicting the scene as one beset with political intrigue, betrayals, shifting loyalties, incompetence and unchecked ambition.

The demand for the book is so great, it prompted publisher Henry Holt and Company to push up the distribution date to Jan. 5. In Washington, D.C. and elsewhere, long lines queued up at bookstores as adults scrambled to get a copy not unlike the former fervor of the Harry Potter books by a younger set of readers back in the day.

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Ironically, Donald Trump himself is being credited with expanding demand for the tome as he lashes out against it largely on Twitter. Wolff is said to have been given unusual access to the White House to write the book, acting like a fly on the wall in recording what he saw and heard.

Locally, book sellers have been furiously fielding calls from people wanting to buy a copy. But unless you reserved one in advance, you're not likely to get your hands on the hot volume. Jason Martin, the floor manager at Book People, 603 N. Lamar Blvd., said the 80 copies the independent bookseller ordered are already spoken for come Monday.

"There's definitely a huge interest in the book," Martin said in a telephone interview with Patch. "We've been answering calls non-stop since yesterday."

After the 80 ordered books were snapped up, the bookstore ordered another 200 copies, Martin said, noting the next shipment is expected to arrive in ten days to two weeks. But those, too, are spoken for, he said. Generally, Book People allows a certain amount of time for people to retrieve their pre-ordered books, but will likely narrow that window of time for the next shipment given the high demand, he said.

The highly sought nature of the book throws the timeline of delivery for the second order into question, Martin said, but he hopes reinforcements arrive no later then two weeks from Monday. "Nobody in the industry knows," he said. "It's pretty crazy."

The staff at Barnes & Noble also reportedly have been furiously fielding calls, operating on a reservations protocol similar to Book People. There are three Barnes & Noble locations in Austin,

In reaction to the book, Trump on Saturday called the author a "fraud" and a "total loser," adding he considers the book a work of fiction. "He was never in the Oval Office," Trump said. "I didn't give him an interview," he added, contradicting the author's claims of a three-hour interview with Trump that figured in the writing.

"It's in his imagination," Trump said of the interview claim, adding that if libel laws were more lenient, publication of the book could be prevented as his lawyers initially sought to do with a cease-and-desist letter to the publisher. "I guess Sloppy Steve brought him into the office," Trump theorized in regard to Wolff's access, referring to his former confidante and adviser Steve Bannon, whose critical comments on Trump and his associates has served to fuel interest in the book.

Trump also disputes the notion laid out in the book that he is mentally unfit for office, calling himself a "very stable genius." Ironically, Trump's outcry over the book is helping to fuel interest in the tome and sell more copies. Martin joked he suspects Trump is getting a cut of the proceeds given the attention he's placed on the matter.

There are three Barnes & Noble stores in Austin, including the Arboretum location at 10000 Research Blvd.; one at 5601 Brodie Lane; and a third location at the Homestead Shopping Center, 14010 US 183.

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