About

The eagles who soar through the sky are at rest,
And the creatures who crawl, run, and creep
I know you're not thirsty. That's bullshit. Stop lying,
Lie the gently caress down, my darling, and sleep.

"Go the Fuck to Sleep" is a faux children's book aimed towards adults released in June 2011. The book is about a parent who is exasperated because their children would not go to sleep. Since the leak of pirated copies in April 2011, the book has become a viral hit for its highly entertaining, expletive-ridden narrative.

Origin

Written by Adam Mansbach and illustrated by Ricardo Cortés, "Go the Fuck to Sleep"^[1] was originally slated for release in late October 2011. However, a PDF copy of the book was leaked onto the web in April, possibly during exchanges of e-mails with a number of booksellers.

Spread

Following the author's first public appearance at a panel held in Philadelphia on April 23rd, the book began to generate buzz on Twitter, as well as a number of blogs like Boing Boing^[2], and OutsideTheBeltway^[3], as well as mainstream news outlets like New York Times^[4] and Guardian^[5]. Throughout the months of May and June, the book continued to trend as a discussion topic on various forums like Something Awful^[6] and the news stories were picked up by social media aggregators like Reddit^[7] and Digg^[8].

Sales

On Amazon, pre-orders for "Go the Fuck to Sleep" entered the top 200 sellers list on April 24th, climbed to No. 2 by April 27th. On May 12th, pre-orders for "Go the Fuck to Sleep" sky-rocketed to the number one spot on Amazon's bestseller list. Due to its high demand in pre-orders, the book was fast-tracked for publication on June 14th, 2011.

Celebrity Narrations

On June 14th, 2010, a recording of Samuel L. Jackson reading the book was leaked online (shown below, left). That same day, stand-up comic and 30 Rock actor Judah Friedlander also read the book aloud during the book launch party held at the New York Public Library (shown below, right). In leading up to the date of release on June 14th, many of the pirated copies and audiobooks were removed offline.

You Have to Fucking Eat

On November 12th, 2014, Akashic Books published Adam Mansbach's second book "You Have to F****ng Eat,"^[9] which similarly focuses on the difficulty of parents trying to get their children to regulate their eating habits.

That same day, an excerpt from audiobook adaptation of the story narrated by American actor Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) was uploaded to Audible's official YouTube channel^[10] (shown below, left). Audible's audiobook version of the story is available for free download on its website.^[12] On the next day, the UK distributor of the book CanonGate uploaded an extended version of another audiobook adaptation, narrated by British comedian Stephen Fry, to its YouTube channel^[11] (shown below, right).

Search Interest

As shown in the graph below, blog interest in the book started in late April, however, in early May, searches for the book rose considerably after the full book was released online.

External References