wacky, or just whack?

Sally Melville's The Knitting Experience: Book 2: The Purl Stitch, which hasn't even been published yet, is ranked 284 at Amazon.com. Think about that--it's pretty amazing. I was impressed that Folk Bags was at 4,316--not in the five digits, after all, and also not yet released. Umm, purling is just knitting backwards, or am I missing something here? I hate purling, personally.