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‘The Secret’ nears 100-week benchmark

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‘The Secret’ has been out for some time, and it’s approaching the benchmark 100 weeks on the L.A. Times bestseller list. After holding steady for more than a year, it briefly fell off the charts last fall because of the influx of political bios during the presidential election. It has recently reappeared and is currently at 97 weeks on our list. Perhaps readers are looking for more positive thinking than a campaign promise of hope?

‘The Secret,’ which was largely influenced by Wallace D. Wattles’ 1910 book, ‘The Science of Getting Rich,’ has permeated pop culture since its release in November 2006, but it wasn’t until author Rhonda Byrne appeared on ‘Oprah’ that ‘The Secret’ sales really took off.

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Even TV writers got on the bandwagon and have used the book’s directive as comic folly for their main plotline on an episode of the FX sitcom ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.’ The cast disappointedly discovers that there may be more involved in having all that you wish for than just creating a visualization board (as per the book). They realize it may have something to do with the exchange of good deeds and commit themselves to a misguided philanthropic gesture to up their karma cache with the universe.

If the ‘The Secret’ does make it into that elite 100-plus club, it joins titles including ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ and ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.’

— Liesl Bradner

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