Book 'bans' sell books

I picked up a book that was face outward at the end of the aisle at the public library. I thought it was a mystery -- there was a dead body on the first page -- with a Downton Abbey-ish setting. It was not a mystery. Imagine an all-gay-male Downton Abbey with lots of lord-servant sex and not much else. (I was skimming, so perhaps I missed a plot.)

I thought about suggesting that the book be shelved in . . . Well, I'm pretty sure the library doesn't have an XXX section, so I don't know where it would go.

As we say farewell to another Banned Books Week, Brian Huskie notes that it's mostly a "marketing ploy" to sell more books, with some "political posturing" thrown in. Almost always, "banned" books have been challenged (someone complained) or restricted (moved to a different library section or pulled from a school curriculum), he writes. They are not actually banned.

He checked on the availability of 12 books from the American Library Association's most-challenged list (nearly all for alleged explicit content) and 10 books reportedly removed from Amazon. In public libraries across the country, half had 91 percent of the books on the shelves. As for bookstores, he writes, the "bans" are "badges of honor (and, of course, Best Seller Bait)."

Some middle and high schools have removed books like Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson from school libraries, Huskie writes. This could be due to gay or trans-phobia -- or "due to illustrated scenes depicting a woman fantasizing about being a man and strapping on a dildo so her female lover could perform oral sex on it; or tutorials on how to use sex apps . . . "

Unlike libraries, Amazon has no limits on shelf space, writes Huskie. Yet the site has "banned" titles such as "The Six Million: Fact or Fiction? by Peter Winter, a Holocaust denial text, and Might is Right: The Authoritative Edition by Ragnar Redbeard, which makes the case that the strongest (i.e. the Anglo-Saxon men) have the duty to rule by using violence."

Most of the books on the Goodreads list of 19 “banned” Amazon books remain unavailable, writes Huskie. "If we were ideologically consistent, we’d be outraged. Are you?"

Find a copy of The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry by Arthur R. Butz and The Wolf Tamers: How They Made the Strong Weak by David Sinclair, bring them to your kid’s school’s library, and insist that they display those books alongside Crank and Flamer in solidarity. Please record yourself - we all want to see the look on the librarian’s face as she stutter-stammers her rationale for banning books from the banned book display.

Seventy percent of libraries Huskie checked carried a copy of Johnny the Walrus by Matt Walsh, a children’s book criticizing transgender ideology. However, "in politically blue counties, it was almost always shelved in 'Adult Nonfiction' or 'Political Commentary,' not the children’s section where it presumably belongs," he writes. By contrast, "Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi, another political board book, was in 90% of libraries, and was always in the children’s section."

"Both are books for adults written in a little kid’s genre," he writes, but if one is for children, then both are. When Amazon moved Johnny the Walrus from 'Children’s LGBTQ+ Books' to 'Political Commentary' after backlash, sales went way down. So, "on your way to grab your copy of the Holocaust Denial book, pick up a copy of Johnny the Walrus, and take that to the school library, too," Huskie writes. "Again, I can’t stress it enough, record your interaction."

Will libraries feature Charlie Kirk's book? asks Anne Mulhern of FAIR. Demand has surged for Kirk's 2024 book, Right Wing Revolution: How to Beat the Woke and Save the West. But most of the would-be readers are on long hold lists.

"The Allegheny County, Pennsylvania library system, with roughly 75 libraries, has only one copy of Right Wing Revolution — and 53 holds," she writes. "One more copy is on order, which will still leave a ratio of 26:1. At that rate, the last person in line could wait six months to a year."

The county's libraries stock 15 copies of Randi Weingarten’s Why Fascists Fear Teachers to satisfy 11 holds, Mulhern adds.

Libraries in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania have no copies, she writes. "A retired librarian in Oregon told me that there is just one public library copy in the entire state."

Mulhern proposes requiring libraries to report on books bought, weeded out and checked out each year. If buying or weed-out decisions "reveal ideological favoritism rather than responsiveness to patron demand, that would be evident in the data."