A bookseller's blacklist?

Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds reports that Jonah Goldberg’s new book Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning is #1 at Amazon.com, that (rumor has it) it will make its debut of the bestseller list of our former paper of record (the one published in New York that says it prints “all the news that’s fit to print”), but that it has been strangely difficult to find in Barnes & Noble. A liberal conspiracy? Who knows. I remember the concerted campaign that was waged against Michael Fumento’s book The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS when it appeared some years ago. And I remember when certain books of mine (this one, for example, not to mention this one or this one), though favorably reviewed and humming along in double digits at Amazon seemed irritatingly hard to come by at Barnes & Noble and Borders. I just conducted a casual and unscientific survey of some Barnes & Noble stores near me:

* Norwalk, CT:

Me: “I wonder if you can tell me if you have a book called Liberal Fascism in stock.”
Bookseller: “Liberal what?”
Me: “Fascism. F-a-s-c-i-s-m.”
Bookseller: “Umm, who’s the author?”
Me: “Jonah Goldberg.”
Bookseller: “Let’s see . . . no. But we might be able to order it for you.”

* Stamford, CT:

Same drill.

* Orange, CT:

Same drill.

* Westport, CT:

Similar drill; bookseller thought they had it, but no . . . no: I learn that Milford, CT might have one copy.

I do not propose to draw any conclusions from this. I merely report. You decide.