Since Mitch Albom’s latest treacly opus, For One More Day, went on sale at Starbucks October 3, it has sold 45,000 copies , which Publishers Weekly reports accounts for 12% of the  total number of books sold. What does Starbucks put in its frappuccino to get readers to throw their money away on this sentimental garbage? When I first heard that Starbucks had chosen Albom as the first author the company was going to promote in its stores, I was so disappointed. What a wasted opportunity, I thought. Already a best selling author for such masterpieces of icky sentimentality as Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Albom certainly didn’t need the extra marketing attention. Why couldn’t have Starbucks been as adventurous, or at least as eclectic, in their first  book choice as they are with their music CDs? (This past Sunday’s New York Times has an interesting article on the Starbucks cultural asethetic.)

This would have been a perfect moment to introduce exciting and original first novelists like Keith Donohue (The Stolen Child), Leyne Mehu (Song of the Crow), and Maria Arana (Cellophane). But as I skimmed through Albom’s book, I realized why Starbucks chose it. The novel is short (197 pages, making for a quick read), compact (easily held in one hand while you grasp a grande latte in the other), and easy to display by the cash register. (Try doing that with Thomas Pynchon’s forthcoming 1000 page opus Against the Day!) With a built-in-reader fan base, Albom is the perfect Starbucks author—as easy to package and market as its coffee. [Starbucks is apparently searching for its second author and Galleycat.com speculates on who it might be.]