The city of Oakland has implemented a new tax on sellers of used goods that, in effect, now places the used bookshop in the same realm as the pawn shop.The tax, which is based on the state's Secondhand Dealers' law; a 50-year-old law written to help police locate stolen goods, will cost bookshops at least $600 a year and force them to fingerprint employees and "keep meticulous, detailed notes of every item they buy and sell, including the private personal information of the persons involved in each transaction."Failure to comply with the law is considered a misdemeanor and carries a...
Osama Bin Laden’s Book Club: 3 Must Reads for America
The latest purported communique from Osama Bin Laden,“An Address to the American People,” includes mention of 3 books that Bin Laden feels will help us Americans better understand his plight.The three titles are:The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" by Stephen M. WaltPalestine: Peace Not Apartheid by former President Jimmy CarterThe Apology of a Hired Killer - a book that doesn't exist though one analyst suggests he was referring to Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John PerkinsHmm, here we are 8 years out from 9/11 and Bin Laden decides to talk books. Something is just not right about...
Banned Books Week Coming Soon
Banned Books Week is scheduled for September 26th- October 3rd, 2009.Every time we think that banning books in the United States is a thing of the past, we are sorely reminded that there are still many who believe that removing books from book stores and library shelves will make the social issues that the books represent go away and that the world will be a better place.The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is fighting the good fight for retailers.“The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is the bookseller's voice in the fight against censorship. Founded by the American Booksellers...
The Kindle as Political Tool
Talk about bi-partisan support.First, it was the New Democratic Leadership Council with their cockamamie "A Kindle in Every Backpack" proposal. Granted, the textbook landscape is littered with unfair practices and is in dire need of reform, but before we throw the book out the window for good we should spend some time trying to make right the inherent injustice of the textbook world. We need to make them affordable and relevant before we start talking about abolishing them. Of course, the e-reader provides certain advantages but just like its relationship to the printed book, it is a complement not a...
The Wasilla Public Library Before Sarah Palin
Remember the storm surrounding Sarah Palin and her book banning crusade at the Wasilla Public Library. It turned out to be one of the bigger issues of her campaign.20 years before Palin thrust the Wasilla Public Library into the national spotlight Edith Olson wrote a book The Library and I. A History of the first twenty-five years of the Wasilla Public Library. Olson was the librarian at the Wasilla Public Library from 1938-1958. When she arrived their was no library building and the library consisted of two bookcases in the hall of the school house. The library held 350 books,...