As you all know, Markos Moulitsas' new book, "American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin and Power bind Jihadists and the Radical Right" was published on the first of this month. As I live just over the border from you guys, I've been waiting for Chapters, a leading Canadian bookstore, to carry the book.
I'm still waiting.
In the political sciences section you can find all the right wing books. Bill O'Reilly, Anne Coulter, Glenn Beck, Shaun Hannity - you name them, the wingnuts are there.
But I was somewhat surprised to note that out of my local Chapters store and the three other stores within 25km of where I live, only one store had ANY books by Kos, and none have the new one. You can buy it online, of course; they have to compete with Amazon in that market... but whereas the right is amply represented, you can't walk into a bookstore and find any Kos books on the shelves.
At the end of last week, I used the "Contact Us" feature of the website, and asked them directly:
Are you ever planning to stock Markos Moulitsas' new book "American Taliban" (ISBN: 9781936227020) in stores? It's been nearly two weeks since it was published and no store in the Kitchener-Waterloo district have any copies.
If there are plans to stock this in stores, when can it be expected to arrive?
Their reply was less than helpful:
Thank you for contacting Chapters Indigo Online.
Please accept this e-mail as confirmation that your comments have been received. We appreciate hearing from our customers and value the information and feedback that we receive.
Please contact your nearest Chapters, Indigo or Coles retail location to confirm when the item "American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right" may become available at your nearest store.
We apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced. If you require additional assistance, please feel free to contact us.
Thank you for choosing Chapters Indigo Online. Books, Music, Movies and More.
Sincerely,
Carrie 2342
Customer Service Team
Chapters Indigo Online
Since the local store had suggested the website, this wasn't exactly any use. In fact, the local store manager had absolutely no idea when - or even if - there was going to be any deliveries that contained the book. When he tried to look it up on their system by ISBN (International Standard Book Number) he got a simple response from the online inventory system: "Unrecognized item"
The Right love to go on about how the "mainstream media" is always biased against them, but I couldn't help but wonder how many bookstores in US States are also awaiting the arrival of this book and also don't know when or even if they will get their copies.
If anyone's been to their local bookstore and has a similar tale of not being able to find Kos, perhaps you'd like to share here. It might give us an interesting snapshot.