Booksellers Say Mideast Is Hot Topic : Information: Seeking to learn more about what brought on the war, readers are going beyond newspapers and TV to find a perspective.

Orange County booksellers are reporting an upsurge of interest in books about Iraq and Saddam Hussein as readers pull themselves away from televisions, magazines and newspapers to learn more about what led to the current warfare in the Middle East.

From “Republic of Fear: The Inside Story of Saddam’s Iraq” to “Bullseye: Iraq,” many local bookstore owners say that the pace of sales has picked up in recent weeks as the crisis intensified.

“Just today, we’ve had three requests for different books” related to the war, said Nancy Cavanagh, assistant manager at the Beach Boulevard branch of Crown Books in Huntington Beach. “They’ve been requesting the books by name.”

National chains, such as Waldenbooks and B. Dalton Booksellers, also say sales of books about Iraq and the Middle East in general have increased in recent weeks.

For some publishers, the crisis has proven a boon for some titles that had been gathering dust. A revised edition of “Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East,” which purports to show how the current Mideast crisis was prophesied in Scripture, has sold 550,000 copies since being released a month ago. That’s slightly more than the first printing sold during 10 years on the shelves after its first printing in 1974.

“We thought we should bring it out again because of the swelling of tension,” said Jonathon Petersen, a spokesman for Zondervan Publishing House in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The crisis and resulting war have also spawned a few “instant books,” but fewer than have many other big news events. These are typically books that are written and published in days--sometimes hours--after a major news event.

“It’s a real crap shoot. Sometimes they sell. Sometimes they don’t,” said Jim Milliot, editor of the Wilton, Conn., newsletter Book Publishers Report. “With cable (television), and more news shows and more magazines, the public kind of gets its fill of current events. The instant book only adds to the glut.”

Publishers and booksellers say that “Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf,” written by a New York Times correspondent and a Harvard University scholar, is one instant book that has been doing well. Since Oct. 15, the $5.95 paperback has sold about 300,000 of its first printing of 420,000 copies, according to a spokeswoman for Random House in New York.

Another book that just hit the stores is the “The Rape of Kuwait” by Jean P. Sasson. Knightsbridge Publishing is advertising the book in newspapers this week, urging readers to “read it and you’ll know why we’re there.”

These and a dozen other titles dominate the Middle East bookshelf. But some booksellers, who report no particular upsurge in sales, say they are surprised there are not more.

“There aren’t too many books on Hussein,” said Bob Weinstein, owner of the Book Baron in Anaheim, trying to explain the lack of reader interest.

Other owners predict a rash of new titles when hostilities end.

Booksellers reporting increased sales say that the upsurge has been slow and steady, despite the crisis reaching a fever pitch in the last week.

Dennis Burnett, manager of HBJ Bookstore in downtown San Diego, said he thinks that people want to read books about the Middle East because media coverage has been too superficial and crisis-oriented.

“News broadcasts have been focusing on the technicalities of war, not the cultural and social aspects of life over there,” he said.

Burnett, whose customers are mostly business people who work downtown, said interest has been building for a couple of months and has been especially strong for the last two weeks. He said people want to know more about the area so they can decide whether the U.S. leadership is making the right moves there.

A clerk in a Laguna Beach bookstore said he noticed a sharp rise in sales in August, when Iraqi forces first invaded Kuwait. He said interest is still high but has fallen off since that first sales burst.

“Maybe there was more hope then,” said Leland Paxton of Upchurch-Brown Booksellers. “Also, there’s been so much information in the media. In the beginning, people were like, ‘Kuwait? Where’s that?’ Now, you see people interviewed on the street, and they seem pretty well informed.”

Cavanagh said it seems people are reading the books themselves, rather than sending them to relatives serving in the Persian Gulf.

READING UP ON MIDDLE EAST The threat of war brought about by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait has made books about the Middle East big sellers in local bookstores. Several books recently released about Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein are among the most in demand.

“The Rape of Kuwait: A True Story of Iraqi Atrocities Against a Civilian Population.” By Jean P. Sasson. Knightsbridge Publishing, 1990. 154 pages in paperback, $4.95.

* “Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf.” By Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie. A (New York) Times Special Report, 1990. 268 pages in paperback, $6.95.

* “From Beirut to Jerusalem.” By Thomas L. Friedman. Anchor/Doubleday, 1989. 541 pages in paperback, $12.95. 21 weeks on the New York Times paperback bestseller list.

* “Republic of Fear: The Inside Story of Saddam’s Iraq.” By Samir al-Khalil. Pantheon/Random House, 1989. 312 pages in paperback, $12.95.

* “The Future Battlefield and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.” By Hirsh Goodman and W. Seth Carus. Transaction Publishers/Near East Policy Series, 1990. 218 pages in paperback, $16.95.

* “The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom.” By Sandra Mackey. Meridian/Penguin, 1987. 433 pages in paperback, $10.95.

“Arabs: Journeys Beyond the Mirage.” By David Lamb. Random House, 1987. 320 pages in paperback, $9.95.

“Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land.” By David K. Shipler. Penguin, 1986. 596 pages in paperback, $9.95.

“The Crusades Through Arab Eyes.” By Amin Maalouf. Schocken, 1985. 312 pages in paperback, $12.95.

“The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa’ud.” By Robert Lacey. Avon, 1981. 630 pages in paperback, $5.95.

“The Big Book for Peace.” By 30 authors and illustrators of children’s books. Dutton Children’s Books, 1990. 120 pages in hardcover, $15.95.

Source: Brentano’s, Rizzoli Books and Upchurch-Brown Booksellers.