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On the Barnes & Noble Shelving Fiasco, Readers Offer Further Insight, Amusement

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UPDATE: I’d love to hear other readers’ stories on this theme. Contact me using the EMAIL US button at the top of the page.

Regarding the marketing strategy at Barnes & Noble for Stephen Meyer’s latest, thoughtful reader Mike reports:

I just read David Klinghoffer’s article about a person’s experience with Darwin’s Doubt at Barnes & Noble. I experienced the same thing at the Barnes & Noble in Lakewood, Washington, when the book first came out. They told me it was a corporate decision. I sent an email to the corporate headquarters of Barnes & Noble and got a canned response that did not answer my question. I emailed them three times demanding an answer and they refused to respond as to why they made such a decision. We know why, but they don’t have the integrity to admit it.

From this it seems the decision to put Meyer in the Christianity section and Dawkins’s God Delusion under Science was not made locally in Manhattan Beach by some Darwinist employee in a fit of pique, but rather much more deliberately at the corporate level. Which is even more telling. I should have known.

The idea is to sell books by telling readers interested in intelligent design that they are kidding themselves if they think it’s science. Why not just set up a special shelf labeled "Creationism in Cheap Tuxedo" and another labeled "Science Proves There Is No God, You Fools"? Why be coy?

Meanwhile reader Lee in Phoenix, Arizona, writes in to share a self-shot video of himself re-shelving Dr. Meyer’s previous title, Signature in the Cell, from Christianity to Biology & Chemistry. That’s amusing, I admit, but not recommended. After all, B&N is a business owned by stockholders and is entitled to make its own shelving choices, however ill-advised.

By contrast over at Amazon, the strategy is more about selling books than insulting customers. They’ve got Darwin’s Doubt categorized under Paleontology (where it’s #1), Organic Evolution (#3), and yes, Creationism (#3). Well, two out of three is better than what they’ve got going at B&N.

Image: Barnes & Noble, Lakewood, Washington/Wikipedia.

I’m on Twitter. Follow me @d_klinghoffer.

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

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