Well, I guess I have a still better story belonging to this genre, but it happened in France, where I live at this time.

On a last September evening I went to the biggest bookstore one can find around here, located in the city nearby (Troyes, in Champagne-Ardennes; a hundred of miles from Paris). It’s kind of French equivalent to Border’s and it’s a store big enough to afford having a small Books-in-English-Language department.
I first assumed it was the most likely place where I could find Atlas Shrugged; or order it, at least.
Alas, I wasn’t unable to find it on shelves, in English as in French neither, and so I asked for to a young saleswoman quietly working on her computer behind a counter.

–“Anne Reid,” you say?
–No, no, A-Y-N, and R-A-N-D, I spelled.
–Hmmm… No, I don’t find that name. Do you have a title? Said the girl who visibly assumed I could have been mistaken at some point with foreign orthography.
–Yes. Atlas Shrugged; Atlas, like the giant; then Shrugged: S-H-R-U-two Gs-E-D; I spelled.

I waited for a little while as the obliging girl was busying herself again on her keyboard.

–No, sorry, I don’t find this title. Are you sure of the author’s name and title?
–Oh yes, absolutely. It’s an American best seller since years already and it keeps going steady at a rate of about 500,000 copies a year.

She frowned and turned to her chief who was also working on a computer; an older an equally obliging woman on her 35.

–Does it ring any bell to you: Atlas Shrugged; Ayn Rand; A-Y-N, R-A-N-D?
–Hmm, no; never heard of; while addressing to me rather than to her younger colleague who went back resuming her search for my book.
–Well, I’m going to look for this elsewhere, she said, and if ever this book does exist then I’ll find out.

It didn’t take more than ten seconds before the girl exclaimed, triumphal, with a broad smile:

–That’s it, I got it!

I noticed that she was browsing on Amazon while I was bending to take a look at her computer’s screen.

–But why can’t I find it on my database, she said, then? Oh, it is available in English only; and — we can’t order this book for you, seemingly. We can order nearly all books in English you want; but, sorry, not this one, seemingly.

Still browsing the web while addressing this time to her superior who began to express some curiosity about our ongoing conversation:

–How curious it is, I am even unable to find any critics or else in French about this book!

The kind girl seemed sincerely sorry.

–I’m sorry sir, she finally said as she ended her search, did you try elsewhere in some other bookstores downtown? Maybe they can order it, but…uh…if we can’t then I doubt you’ll be able to order it elsewhere, in my opinion.

–I know; I tried while browsing their online catalogue, already, in vain; I answered.

Roger Kimball went searching for what seems to be Liberal’s most hated book, Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism, and has come up, suspiciously enough, empty in a few stops throughout Connecticut. I’ve conducted my own brief look at two Seattle area…

But the Wilton store did. Same with Colonie and Niskayuna (some call it Schenectady, others Niskayuna). I found a copy of the book in both Colonie and Niskayuna today as well. I double-checked.

So my apologies on the Wilton v. Clifton Park gaffe. That’s my mistake.

But the B&N locations have Goldberg’s book.

And none of them, even Colonie and Niskayuna today, had ever heard of Roger Kimball. Ask them yourself, if you wish.

I found the staffs in all three stores, especially Colonie and Niskayuna today, to be very nice and professional. Young and not very well read, mind you, but very nice.

Sorry again about the Wilton v. Clifton Park error. That’s my fault. As for your attitudes, I am not sure how to respond. I could call it passionate or upset derived from my miscue, for which I again apologize, but your bitterness, if you will, seems somehow derived from an anger at not having the facts match your stated theories.

Just because we wish to see a conspiracy does not make it so.

Again, sorry about the Wilton v. Clifton Park gaffe. That’s my fault.

So I have to drive to Colonie Center to get my brick & mortar fix at B&N. Or I have to drive about 20 miles north to Wilton (which no one would confuse with Clifton Park).

I’d check them Tuesday on my way home from work, but I’m flying out to Atlanta on business.

Nice. The conspiracy explains itself with an argument that refutes itself. Simply, my theory is that the purchasing agent(s) for B&N thinks like Mr. Ettore (if indeed Mr. Ettore isn’t the purchasing agent), and continues to think like him even when reality smacks him in the face. No elaborate theory is necessary.

Nobody has to make “conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories are rationalizations of cause and effect that either ignore occam’s razor and/or use unsubstantiated assumptions and events (often disguised as “conventional wisdom”) to “connect dots” that would otherwise be dissociated.

What is happening here is that everyone is verifying the FACTS, NOT “the truth”. For example, what book stores are carrying Mr. Goldberg’s books and what affect it will have on sales. The interpretation is up to you, as the author of the original post pointed out.

As for “John P. Normanson”, I don’t like being deceived about something I just witnessed this past week at a Bookstore that I drove by every day and visited twice this week alone.

“s1c :
I stopped by the Borders store in Farmington, CT yesterday. No copies anywhere, so I decided to use the search computer at the help desk to look for the book. The answer, “book not yet published”. I guess that answers why the book is in stock!”

Yes, s1c, exactly the same story on my end.

No one at those B&N outlets had ever heard of Roger Kimball, though.”

YOU-ARE-LYING

John whoever-you-are, I grew up and lived here. First, read my post earlier, in which I stated SPECIFICALLY that the B&N stores that I checked did NOT carry Mr. Goldberg’s book, let alone DISPLAYED them.

The one you’re talking about in “Albany” is the one in Colonie Center, recently rebuilt over the last year; beatiful phasod and interior architecture based on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Art Deco design. A pair of vendors sell sunglasses and cell-phone pouches in two “cart kiosks” on the second floor in front of the elevator (male and female, late-teens, early twenties, foreign and Indian features).

*The B&N in Colonie SPECIFICALLY told me they didn’t stock it nor was it on order when I asked.

The B&N you’re alluding to in “Niskayuna” (it’s in Schenectady and I WENT to Niskayuna High School on Balltown)is in Mohawk Commons (people who’ve lived here sometimes still call it “Mohawk Mall”). It sits next to PetSmart and is opposite the building with Supercuts.

*They do NOT carry it. And I wasn’t going to order it from them because I’m leaving for Whitney Point on Sunday.

There is no B&N in Clifton Park. There is, FYI, a Borders store there and when I checked [today], the guy claimed that Liberal Fascism hadn’t been published yet [Oooookay].

YOU-ARE-LYING, or you’re making this up (which is the same thing).

Anybody who wants to verify this can call B&N themselves:

Schenectady/Niskayuna @ Mohawk Commons: Phone# 518-377-0349

Albany @ Crossgates Mall: Phone# 518-459-8183

Good Night John