Searching for 'An Army'

I completed my quest to purchase Prof. Glenn Reynold's book that's sweeping the nation, An Army of Davids.

Short version, at the 3rd Street Promenade in lovely Santa Monica, California, USA, Barnes & Noble has the book in stock, Borders doesn't, long version, keep on reading.

I made note of what was displayed and how in each store.

At Borders as you first walk in Wayne Dyer's book Inspiration is what hits you in the face (it took a great deal of restraint and will power on my part not to hit back). On the New Hard Covers table near the entrance the three books set up to best catch your eye are Freedom Riders, My Friend Leonard, and Impostor. On the same table they had a copy of Strategery, and they had a few copies of Rebel-in-Chief. Notable (or maybe not) the single copy of Strategery was turned with its back showing instead of its cover (my slightly OCD need to straighten in stores (my house can be a mess, but I hate sloppy displays) made me fix that immediately). They didn't have Oriana Fallaci's new book, or An Army of Davids as previously mentioned. They did have plenty of Al Franken's Truth still prominently displayed even though it was released awhile ago.

Comparing what was displayed with Amazon's Politics top ten (before I left that is, this list changes constantly) Getting America Right, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, Force of Reason, An Army of Davids, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam were missing and The World is Flat, Strategery, Impostor, The End of Faith and Our Endangered Values were present. Make of that what you will, I'm just reporting what I saw (I didn't double check with staff on all of these so some of these books may have been in stock but not displayed where I looked, I did check the computer on Prof. Reynolds and Ms. Fallaci's book and both were on Reserve).

Now on to Barnes & Noble. I didn't write down what was displayed on the lower floor, instead I concentrated on the books that were on the display table on the third floor along with all the non-fiction titles of a current affair, historical and political bent. The most prominently displayed books were as follows, Menace In Europe, Preemption, Rebel-in-Chief, Covering, The Brothers Bulger, Strategery, The Big Oyster, and The Intellectuals and the Flag. All and all a good mix across styles and the political spectrum, plus on the same table (though on the bottom nook rather on the more easily visible top shelf was Orianna Fallaci's Force of Reason. Nowhere on the table was Prof. Reynold's book, but it was shelved with all the other Current Affairs titles in the regular section, so I grabbed my copy and headed for the register.

Neither store had copies of Crashing the Gate however, and if you believe Drudge, that book hasn't been selling particularly well (253 copies! Drudge must be smoking something cause although that book isn't lighting up bookstores, it does have a respectable Amazon ranking #672 as of 5:30pm PST on March 9th UPDATE: According to Kos, Drudge was being Drudge, the book's street date is March 27th, but it's already being shipped by Amazon, however, if Amazon is one of the very few places you can pick this book up, you'd expect the sales to be higher if it's generating big interest). Also both had Dog Days, neither had Take it Back displayed prominently (and I didn't really look though for that tome).

This is what I saw when I perused both locations this afternoon. My impression has been for sometime that Borders is a little more less welcoming to books across the political spectrum whereas Barnes & Noble likes money and will sell whatever sells (Example, Borders has no promotions for Easter or Women's History Month, B&N had a table full of Christian books for Easter (and a Peeps book, too) as well as a a two tables highlighting Women's Studies type books for Women's History (or is that Herstory?) Month with the kind of titles you'd expect. Don't know if that's true of all locations of each company, or if that's a quirk of the competing Santa Monica locations, but that's what I see when I visit those two stores. Probably just comes down to the personalities of the local management, and possibly differences in the overall corporate cultures, I can't answer that, I can only describe what I saw for myself.

Now don't bother me, I'm busy reading An Army of Davids. (sorry no photo manipulations, or pictures of the book on the beach, maybe I'll think of something later (to earn yet another link from The Man, but for now, I'm reading).

(I should have cut a deal with Amazon for giving them all these links, next time)