the book achieved initial commercial success. the book reached the no. 3 spot on the "publishers weekly" best-sellers list for non-fiction (as of april 3). it debuted at no. 1 on the new york times bestseller list. it also reached the amazon.com bestsellers rank of no. 35 in the general category 'books' (as of april 12). brooks told "newsweek" that he felt surprised by the large audience interest in his book tour, such as a woman screaming "will you marry me?" in aspen institute as well as people at random house hugging him in their office corridors.