LSAT 155 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q25

LR Question 25 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: The rise of book megastores in the 1990s increased sales…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: The rise of book megastores increased sales of best-sellers but decreased sales of less commercial, more literary books.

REASONING: In 1986, best-selling hardcover books accounted for about 7% of hardcover sales, but that number nearly doubled by 1996. Megastores can offer deeper discounts than independent stores, and give the highest discounts on best-selling hardcovers. This discourages sales of other hardcovers.

ANALYSIS: If you’ve had a lot of experience with Logical Reasoning, you might have noticed the discrepancy in this argument. The author makes a conclusion about books in general, but all their premises are about hardcovers only! It would be a sounder conclusion if it was only hardcovers, but we don’t know enough to confidently say it applies to all books.

Another glaring issue is the use of percentages in the evidence, but absolute sales numbers in the conclusion. This is an error the LSAT loves to throw in. Remember that something can decrease as a percentage, but increase as an absolute value.

The correct answer will probably attack the argument on one of these two points.

___________

1. This answer doesn’t attack the idea that best-seller sales increased and sales of more literary books decreased. In fact, it supports that conclusion by providing a basis for why it may be correct.
2. Similar to A, this answer provides support for the idea that people prefer best-sellers to other books. It doesn’t mean that best-seller books definitely increased in sales, but it certainly doesn’t weaken the argument.
3. CORRECT. If the more literary books are more often paperback, then all our evidence about hardcovers goes out the window. The argument relies on hardcovers being representative of books as a whole.
4. This answer says the number of books increased, but that doesn’t tell us anything about sales.
5. This supports the idea that more literary books are more frequently found in independent bookstores, but doesn’t actually weaken the argument. It doesn’t affect whether megastores are increasing or decreasing sales, and doesn’t address either of the two issues we noticed above.

Recap: The question begins with “The rise of book megastores in the 1990s increased sales”. It is a Weaken question. Learn how to master LSAT Weaken questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.