Hugo Chávez holds a copy of Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival at the UN. Photograph: Julie Jacobson/AP
If he ever tires of running Venezuela, Hugo Chávez would make an outstanding book club president, judging by his impact on Noam Chomsky's book sales.Since waving a copy during an address to the UN last week, the Venezuelan president has made Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance a publishing sensation.
What was one of Professor Chomsky's lesser known works has surged to No 1 on Amazon's bestseller list, with bookshops making bulk orders from the thousands of extra copies being printed.
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Mr Chávez, who blames the US for backing a coup which briefly ousted him in 2002, used his UN address to brand George Bush a "devil" who had left a whiff of sulphur lingering in the chamber. Later he told an audience, to laughter, that his favourite tome was tainted by being placed on the podium where the US leader had stood. "I had to sprinkle it with holy water."
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