Lukewarm book seller David Carr has assumed his secondary role at the New York Times this convention season. For the next few days, he's eschewing his business reporter role for his Carpetbagger mask. "What!" you exclaim, realizing it is not quite Oscar season and, thus, do not understand why Carpetbagger is getting bylined. It's because the Times has caught on to something about the DNC in Denver: It is actually not a news-making event, but one of glitz, glam, and endless parties. (It also explains why Carr has already told you how to spend your time at the RNC in St. Paul.) The DNC is just like the Oscars, so who better to throw into the mix but Carr. Especially when there's a Cindy Adams nugget to report:

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By last week, David Carr's book The Night of the Gun had made it to his own newspaper's "extended best-seller list." All it took? A mediocre 3,342 copies sold.

And now, an update: He's moved another 3,000 copies, for a grand total of about 6,000 units for the week ending Aug. 17.

This, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about two-thirds of all book sales, so let's say Carr's actual tally is closer to about 9,000. Last week, it stood at No. 82 on Amazon's sales rank; today, it's at No. 134.

So, this is interesting. Yesterday, Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici said Times reporter David Carr's memoir The Night of the Gun hit No. 21 on the Times' own best-seller list for hardcover non-fiction list, "right after Freakonomics and just ahead of Southern Storm." Sound impressive? Maybe not. One source who looks these sort of things up on Nielsen BookScan reports Carr's book has moved only 3,342 copies since it went on sale Aug. 5. Yesterday, Carr's book was down to No. 71 on Amazon.com's best-seller list; today it's slipped again, to No. 82.

Remember when you were five and one of the lessons your parents instilled in you was "Crime doesn't pay"? Yeah, scratch that. Because New York Times media reporter David Carr found out that it does. Big time. The former women abuser, child neglecter, and drug user has seen his memoir The Night of the Gun climb aboard his his own paper's best-seller list.

Update: Or not.

David Carr, David Carr, David Caaaaarrr. So sick of hearing that name already, and his book, Night of the Gun, just came out. What the rest of the rooms of Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous wouldn't give to be the one guy who managed to turn his foray in crack cocaine into a much-hyped memoir? Or work at the New York Times? Okay, forget the AA analogy, and replace it with "everyone in the entire world, ever." David Carr is one lucky guy. Here are three things that this lucky man likes/doesn't like (booze and crack are not on the list):

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Not only does New York Times business beater David Carr get the huge publicity of an excerpt in The New York Times Magazine, he also gets a review in the Times' Books section. This is one of the perks of being a reformed crackhead and semi-reformed alcoholic who turned a lifetime of beating women and ignoring his children into a cushy gig at the nation's leading newspaper. So what does his own newspaper think? For starters, that Carr is an "excellent" media columnist. And, in the nearly 1,000 words he spends on his audit, reviewer Pete Hamill — sober alcoholic, author of A Drinking Life, and one-time David Remnick critic — had exactly one negative thing to say about the book.

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We have not read David Carr's drug memoir in its entirety, partly because we were off gallivanting around Europe for the past two weeks, but mostly because there is only so much we can read about Carr abusing women and endangering children, especially when we're reading not out of leisure, but out of obligation for this website. How nice, then, for the countless reviews, pull quotes, and other documentation about the Times reporter's insta-meme book to bring us up to speed. For instance, there is today's New York book review/Carr profile from Jennifer Senior. And she didn't just save us a lot of time, energy, and paper cuts by devoting 4,200 words to Carr. Right there, in the middle of her copy, is the most eloquent explanation of Carr, and his motivation behind The Night of the Gun, for you to see.

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"This is what makes The Night of the Gun so important. After years of abuse, the memoir has found its white knight, galloping in to show how a personal story can be engrossing, shocking and true. Mr. Carr’s book—which has been the talk of the publishing world since its release date was bumped from September to August and a gripping excerpt was printed in The New York Times Magazine two weekends ago—practically issues a challenge to those current reigning kings—David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs, Ishmael Beah—of the memoir genre: You get a video camera and tape recorder, and retrace the steps of your life. Will your story sound the same?" [NYO]

Former crackhead, cheating husband, womanizer, baby daddy, child endangerer, and lady abuser David Carr, whose drug-laden memoir The Night of the Gun, excerpted in yesterday's Times, dutifully receives write up treatment from his colleagues including Howard Kurtz.

Always one to ask the tough questions, Kurtz prompts Carr: Why write the book?: "Carr, 51, isn't quite sure. 'I ask myself that all the time,' he says in an interview. 'I still feel uneasy about it. It may well be a mistake.'"

Let's clear up the matter with an explanation everybody can understand: $300,000, and Hollywood dreams.

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New York Times columnist and former crackhead David Carr, who does not like this website, is laying down his book, filled with drug-induced anecdotes, on the American public with an excerpt in Sunday's Times. Smartly, the paper has released the giant blockquote ahead of time, so the baby booming set can remember just what it was like to put a glass bowl to their lips.

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David Carr did something very brave. The Times media columnist and reformed crackhead – with his new book detailing his druggy past, that description will carry on at length – dared confront the Fox News publicity machine and call it out for what it is: Another mouthpiece for Roger Ailes & Co.

That Carr would publish an article like this — lots of finger-pointing, zero niceties — is very interesting, and potentially very game changing. Undoubtedly, it's a piece he's been wanting to pen for months, if not longer. But for somebody working an industry beat to so deliberately slam the garage door down on one of the niche's major players is a bold move; the gossip that spills out from the item today will not be even close to the sum of the fall out.

The real gauge of this article's effect will be determined only months, perhaps years, from now, as Carr continues reporting on Fox News, the network's PR division continues it's aggressive defense tactics, and countless more reporters engage in a tug-of-war with Ailes' spirited charges.

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David Carr, the New York Times media columnist and enthusiastic storyteller, will release his book The Night of the Gun this fall. But to drum up interest for the trade, he's hitting the annual Book Expo America, where publishing types swarm Los Angeles hotel rooms to discuss advances, manuscripts, and one-night stands. Carr's friend Keith Kelly describes the book as "the antidote to James Frey's A Million Little Pieces." Which is true, if only because Carr's tales of being a drug addict are chronicled, on video tape, by "old girlfriends, drug counse lors, street users, buddies, journalists and editors," who fill in any memory gaps that years of snorting and boozing might cause.

David Carr on the state of cable news' election coverage: "Oddly, given its operational penchants, the only cable network to play the coverage relatively straight is Fox News. During what would have been his hour on Tuesday night, Bill O’Reilly was brought in, unleashed from the trunk of the car for 10 minutes and then thanked by Brit Hume for handing off his time before he left. And is it just me, or is Karl Rove one of the best things on television news right now? Graceful, careful and generous — he leaves the viewer better informed and wondering what he has done with the real Karl Rove." You mean the real Karl Rove, who hates that dang liberal media and is always denying accusations about himself?

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MAGIC CARPET RIDE Your awards show season might be F'd, but seeing Times media scribe and Hollywood blogger David Carr return to the really small screen of web video will keep us warm through the night. [NYT]

Those of you who had a little too much to drink last night (and are, therefore, contending with morning crankiness, a throbbing headache and an almost irrepressible urge to vomit) may wish to avoid Gawker alum Doree Shafrir's article in this week's New York Observer about media personalities and the increasing importance of "branding." Not just because it quotes Julia Allison (again) without disclosing the author's indirect – or possibly even direct – hand in Allison's rise to fame overhyped mediocrity* but because it quotes Times' media columnist David Carr doing his best impression of a self-important elitist trying to come across as humble.

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