David Klinghoffer at Evolution News & Views:
In two previous posts (here and here) I’ve discussed the situation at B&N, where corporate policy apparently mandates shelving books by Meyer under “Christian Inspiration,” while putting Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion under Science. I’ve since had confirming reports from B&N customers as far afield as Durham, North Carolina; Pittsford, New York; and Silverdale, Washington.
Is there a 12-step program for compulsive re-shelving of pro-intelligent design books at your local Barnes & Noble?
No, there isn’t. There are just bookstores going under across North America, including B&Ns. More on that in a moment.
Longtime readers may recall Misshelver and At last! A MAN for Misshelver!, stories at Post-Darwinist and Uncommon Descent respectively, that addressed earlier, lay-directed instances of reshelving books to suit one’s beliefs. Gone corporate now?
Re bookstores going under, in relation to this phenomenon: Recall the air traffic controller rule governing the behaviour of legacy mainstream media. In general, the more crucial one’s information is to a given population (think air traffic controller and pilots), the less you can monkey around with it. The less important your information is, the more you can just make it an opinionated rant. A drunk can shout anything he wants at the street lamp.
Same with bookstores. The less anyone needs them, the less they need to follow publisher guidelines about what a book’s subject is.
Now that anyone can go anywhere they want anytime on the Internet to buy any information they want, the solution is to just buy online and ignore the Misshelvers, corporate or otherwise. Use this Misshelving-free information instead (approx 3:30 EST):
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Meyer’s Darwin’s Doubt:
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Books > Science & Math > Evolution > Organic
- #2 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Paleontology
- #5 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Theology > Creationism
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Dawkins’s God Delusion:
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Atheism
- #2 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Philosophy
- #10 in Books > Science & Math > History & Philosophy
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See, there you have it! Meyer is religion and Dawkins is science! Or, no, wait, lemme check my notes here…
Aw, just let Barnes & Noble close.
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