From required to desired: Sales keep soaring for ‘1984’

NEW YORK – George Orwell’s “1984” has gone from required reading to desired reading.

With Donald Trump’s administration popularizing terms such as “alternative facts,” the dystopian novel first published in 1949 has topped Amazon.com for more than a week. Signet Classics announced Wednesday that it has ordered an additional 500,000 copies printed for a book that already is standard classroom reading.

Concerns about Trump have also raised interest in dire narratives such as Sinclair Lewis’ “It Can’t Happen Here” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”