That may seem surprising at a time when is growing rapidly, but there is little doubt that we are reading more. Last Christmas was not a big supermarket Christmas compared with 2006.' Independent bookshops are making a comeback, he claims, growing by as much as 14 per cent year-on-year, as customers who want to browse for titles, or seek expert advice, return to smaller outlets. 'They decided that selling books at a discount was a good way of driving traffic and they grew and grew for five years, but I think that trend has slowed. He is more comfortable talking about the changing dynamics of publishing, which were transformed by the entrance of the big supermarkets in the market at the turn of the decade. These days Makinson is even mentioned as a possible successor to Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino, but he is quick to rule that out. Penguin is one of the top three publishers in the UK and the US, and now accounts for 20 per cent of Pearson's turnover and 12 per cent of profits. Makinson used to edit the Lex column at the Financial Times, which - like Penguin - is part of media giant Pearson, but he stopped writing about businesses to run one, returning to the paper in 1994 as its managing director and rising rapidly through the ranks at Pearson. The chat-show queen hosted a live 'webinar' last week with author Eckhart Tolle and the hype surrounding the title could boost Penguin's profits this year. We've now had two "Oprahs" in succession, but this is the first book she's set out to promote globally.' Reading a recommendation from her is almost a hypnotic experience. 'With Oprah, it's really her personal taste. 'Oprah and Richard and Judy demonstrate the power of recommendation,' he says. The American Association of Book Publishers says the US market was worth $24.2bn in 2006, so Winfrey provided the industry with a $250m fillip last year. The American book market grew by 2 per cent in 2007, and Winfrey was responsible for half that expansion, according to Penguin's chief executive John Makinson, a former journalist who took over at Penguin in June 2002. Winfrey's decision to include self-help book A New Earth in her book club, and embark on a global promotional campaign, has turned it into this year's publishing sensation, boosting sales of the Penguin Books title from 500,000 to four million, a far greater uplift than winning the Man Booker prize might generate. But Oprah Winfrey's own club in the US, which inspired the Channel 4 equivalent, wields far more clout. In the British market, being added to Richard and Judy's book club typically increases sales by up to 400 per cent. He highlights the three distinct types of meditation-Focused Attention, Open Monitoring, and Self-Transcending-and showcases the evidence that the third, Self-Transcending, or Transcendental Meditation, is a uniquely accessible, effective, and efficient way to reduce stress, access inner power, and build resilience.įree of gimmicks, mystical verbiage, and obscure theory, Strength in Stillness offers a clear explanation for how Transcendental Meditation can calm the mind, body, and spirit.Celebrity endorsements used to drive sales of aftershave and washing powder, but the rarefied world of publishing now craves the kind of commercial association it might once have sneered at. In Strength in Stillness, Roth breaks down the science behind Transcendental Meditation in a new, accessible way. Once a skeptic, Roth trained under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the twentieth century’s foremost scientist of consciousness and meditation, and has since become one of the most experienced and sought-after meditation teachers in the world. With scientifically proven benefits- reduced stress and anxiety, and improved focus, sleep, resilience, creativity, and memory, to name a few-this five-thousand-year-old technique has a clear and direct impact on our very modern problems. While there is no one single cure, the Transcendental Meditation technique is a simple practice that dramatically changes how we respond to stress and life’s challenges. Medical experts agree that the epidemic of stress is damaging our physical and emotional health at younger and younger ages. Roth’s students range from titans of business and the arts to federal prisoners, from war-scarred veterans to overworked moms and dads. What do they have in common? The answer is a Transcendental Meditation teacher named Bob Roth, who has spent the past forty-five years helping many thousands of people access their innate creativity and power through this simple, nonreligious technique.