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March 30, 2006
How Borders Ignores the Record of 9-11
People going to Borders book stores asking for the now-infamous banned Motoon issue of Free Inquiry magazine can also ask another question: "What books do you have on 9-11?"
Answer: you will find almost none. That was my conclusion after I visited a huge Borders location in New York, on 57th Street and Park Avenue. Just a few miles from Ground Zero, the store carried not a single book devoted to 9-11 in its first-floor section of New York books, "All Things Local." The ONLY fleeting reference to 9-11 was in FDNY: An Illustrated History.
I wanted to be fair to Borders, so I asked a sales associate where I could find 9-11 books.
She couldn't point me to a specific section, but she mentioned 102 Minutes by New York Times reporters Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn. She suggested I look in Modern U.S. History and the politics sections.
I spent at least 30 minutes scouring the shelves of history, politics, and even photography. Surely, I thought, a New York Borders would keep a good stock of 9-11 books, through the logic of the local angle if nothing else. But here is all I uncovered:
-- The 9-11 Investigation, on a top shelf where I could barely reach it
-- Here is New York: A Democracy in Photographs
And that's it: as far as I can tell, this store didn't carry Portraits in Grief, New York September 11, not even 9-11 by Noam Chomsky.
To check that my New York visit was no anomaly, I also visited a Borders in Stamford, Connecticut, and also asked a sales associate for 9-11 books. Again, I got steered to 102 Minutes in the Modern U.S. History. I found that, along with:
-- Inside 9-11: What Really Happened, by German's Der Spiegel magazine
And that's it. The whole search made me feel like I had dropped into a bizarro-world bookstore, where the most fateful world-historical event of our times did not occur. A visitor to either store would find it almost impossible to learn what happened that day -- what happened to set in motion the chain of events that led to many other books that Borders is happy to carry, such as plans to impeach President Bush.
The Free Inquiry episode makes a lot of sense in this context. Borders wouldn't want to inflame anybody with pesky photos of 9-11, right?
Van | 03/30/06 at 08:25 PM | Categories: NYC
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Blogs which link to How Borders Ignores the Record of 9-11:
» Down The Memory Crater from Ed Driscoll.com
Two years ago, as the presidential election year kicked off, Andrew Sullivan wrote:For the Clintonites, 9/11 didn't really happen. Everything the Bush administration has tried to do in foreign policy is perverse, neocon imperialism - despite the fact t... [Read More]
Tracked on March 31, 2006 10:23 AM
» Inquiring minds want to know from sisu
Even as Borders and Waldenbooks bow down in dhimmitudinous submission to their Islamicist masters [via LGF] by refusing to stock the latest issue of Free Inquiry magazine -- declaring “For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees [Read More]
Tracked on March 31, 2006 11:33 AM
Comments
Odd. Maybe someone else can confirm this for me, but when I took my son up to Ground Zero shortly after the attacks, to impress it all in his memory, I distinctly recall seeing a burned-out Borders in one of the wrecked WTC buildings -- a low, black building, I think. Is this memory correct?
I remember thinking of that bookstore as a repository of all Western literature -- but also books on tolerance and books on Islam. Books that I wish some of the killers from that day had had the chance to read before they committed themselves to their deadly mission.
Callimachus | March 31, 2006 12:11 AM
Yes, there was a Borders at the WTC--and it was destroyed in the attacks. I guess that's a little ironic, huh?
Jonathan | March 31, 2006 10:08 AM
You made me curious so I went to Border's online service to check what they have at my local store in NJ. Some of the ones you mentioned that you did not find, are in my store. Others need to be ordered. In looking up 'September 11', there were a number of the books in the store. Even though they tell you which shelf they are on, I am not that familiar with the shelving to know if the books are in plain view.
sbruce45 | March 31, 2006 01:28 PM
I look online at borders.com at 6 different borders stores including two nyc locations. I'm not sure exactly what books you are looking for but i did find some available at the nyc locations... They did all have the 9/11 commission report: in History and politics. I am always amazed at how stupid many bookstore employees are. I've on more than one occasion gone up to a customer confused by what the employee has said to correct said employee. the only way to ask for anything at a bookstore is to march in with ISBN in hand and go to a kiosk to search for yourself.
To be fair, All things local are usually touristy /off the beaten path sorts of books. In NJ, its mostly guide to NJ parks, NJ devils, Weird NJ, that sort of thing.
teri | April 1, 2006 12:03 AM
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