Bookstores have Noticed Atheist

[webmdave]

Minnesota Atheists notes a new policy at Borders Books — they've put up a small display section dedicated to books about atheism.

If you've ever been frustrated in a search for books on nonbelief in your local bookstore or annoyed by their inclusion in the comparative religion section, Borders Books has remedied the situation. "Atheism and Agnosticism" has been added as a new section for the works of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and many others. We hope other bookstores will follow this example, and encourage our members to suggest they do.

A reader actually sent me a photo of this miracle.

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Of course, compare the size of that to the "New Age" or "Religion" section of your typical bookstore, and you can see we've got a ways to go yet. I'm going to have to insist that everyone go out and buy these books. After you've finished reading them, I expect you to write a book of your own, so we can fill up a wide rack of our own.

If you have doubts that you can write a book … have you read any of the books in the New Age or Self-Help or Pop Psych or Religion sections? Lobotomized monkeys could do better.

<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">To monitor comments posted to this topic, use .

 

http://exchristian.net/exchristian/2007/07...ed-atheist.html

[Ouroboros]

That's very encouraging news. I have to take a look at our local store, and if they don't have a section, maybe I should ask them where it is and hint that they should make one.

[pandora]

Bookstores around here have all those books for sale in some main displays and in the more academic section of the comparative religion section, but I have never seen an "ATHEIST" sign. I can just imagine the looks people would give me as I stood right in front of it, looking through all the books...

[R. S. Martin]

Hypothetical conversation; never tried it; just got the idea from reading these posts.

 

ME: Where is your Atheist section?

 

Bookstore: We don't have any.

 

ME: I mean, where do I look for God Delusion?

 

Bookstore: Sorry we don't carry that kind of books.

 

ME: You know, the book Richard Dawkins wrote last year. He's the biologist from Oxford University and he's been all over the world promoting it. Where do I buy it?

 

Bookstore, sounding a bit impatient: I'm sorry but we don't carry Dawkins' books. I know what you're talking about but we don't carry it.

 

ME (I'd probably back down at the point but on the off-chance that I would give it another try): But this is a land of religious freedom--which also means freedom from religion. And we in this city esp. with so many international students celebrate diversity. How come you don't have an atheist section?

 

Bookstore: calls management

 

Manager: Hi, how may I help you?

 

ME: I'm just looking for Richard Dawkins's God Delusion. Where do I get it?

 

Manager: I wouldn't know but we don't carry it.

 

ME: May I know why not? I thought this was a land of religious freedom--which also means freedom from religion. And we in this city esp. with so many international students celebrate diversity. We have many East Asian students and immigrants. They are secular. When will you have an atheist section?

 

Manager: That's just the way it is. Maybe if you go online you can find something.

 

ME: When will you have an atheist section in here?

 

Manager, visibly impatient: This is just a branch store. You will have to contact our main offices. Look, I have to go. Go online and see what you can find. [walks away]

 

Honestly, knowing myself as I do, I would not take it this far. This last exchange would not happen unless I personally knew the manager, OR if I was in another city in a bookstore where I never ever expected to do business again. I would fear getting black-mailed as a customer.

[Former Follier]

Ruby, I actually had that very kind of conversation with a sales clerk at a local bookstore over the weekend. It was humorous... to a point:

 

ME: Hi, I'm looking for a copy of Dan Barker's Losing Faith in Faith. It's out of print but I wasn't sure whether or not you'd be able to locate a copy.

 

HER: Sure, let me check the data base. **Brief Pause** Hmm... no, I'm sorry. We aren't showing any available stock in our network.

 

ME: Not a problem. I was only making sure before I looked for it online (I try to support local businesses in our failing economy).

 

HER: You're welcome.

 

**I walked away to browse through their selection and ran into the clerk several minutes later.**

 

ME: I'm looking for a certain kind of book but am not able to find any in the listed sections. I'm looked in the Society and Religion sections but haven't had any luck. Do you think you could help me?

 

HER: Sure. What are you looking for?

 

ME: Something on religious skepticism.

 

HER: ...

 

ME: Some of the authors I've already read are Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Bob Price, Richard Carrier... do you have anything in that vein?

 

HER: What were some of those names again? **Walking back to the computer.**

 

ME: How about this? Do you have Christopher Hitchens' latest?

 

HER: How do you spell that?

 

ME: H-I-T-C-H-E-N-S. I actually wouldn't mind picking up a copy of god is not Great.

 

HER: It's in the religion section.

 

ME: Thanks.

 

 

When she told me which section to look in for Hitchens, she looked at me like I had just up-ended a recently slaughtered goat carcass and was sucking the blood from its neck wound.

 

Then again, I live in a relatively small town. There are more houses of worship in my community then there are fast food restaurants (this is America, after all). haha

[Lycorth]

Very not-bad. Kudos to Borders!

[Sexton Blake]

I remember in the early sixties in the UK. Most bookshops there did not have an SF section. Now all bookshops do. It takes time for them to catch up with the world outside their doors.

 

Atheism is harder to write for than religion because it takes research, a lot of thought and facts whereas religion takes a little imagination based on a holy book, a few extravagant claims and religionists flock to buy it.

 

If I had a book shop I would be tempted to put bibles and such books in the humour section.

[Babelfish]

If I had a book shop I would be tempted to put bibles and such books in the humour section.

Nothing humorous about it. Maybe the horror section.

[pandora]

I remember in the early sixties in the UK. Most bookshops there did not have an SF section. Now all bookshops do. It takes time for them to catch up with the world outside their doors.

 

Atheism is harder to write for than religion because it takes research, a lot of thought and facts whereas religion takes a little imagination based on a holy book, a few extravagant claims and religionists flock to buy it.

 

If I had a book shop I would be tempted to put bibles and such books in the humour section.

 

 

My husband once moved a couple of the biggest, most expensive Bibles to the "fantasy" section of the fiction aisles.

[Ro-bear]

The Borders bookstore in Knoxville has a small atheist section. B.Dalton has several atheist books, but no section set aside for them. What I have noticed at both stores, while browsing the works of Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens is that someone has inserted little pro-Christian/anti-atheist tracts into many of the books. When I bought The God Delusion, I handed the tract to the cashier and told her I hoped employees would confront the perpetrators of this offensive action if they were caught in the act. My copy of Darwin's Dangerous Idea didn't yield its tract until I got to the page where it had been firmly wedged, which happened to be the place where Dennett began his demolition of creationist arguments.

 

The reason I had to buy these books is that the people who borrow them from the public library don't return them. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the library in Powell is directly across the street from a megachurch.

[LithaB]

After you've finished reading them, I expect you to write a book of your own, so we can fill up a wide rack of our own.[/font]

 

I've already started

[מה טבו]

It would be interesting if the bookstores actually did have a unique section for atheism/agnosticism, but honestly, I can't see it becoming widespread in this country. Even occult and fantasy, which is pretty mainstream stuff, can't be found in a lot of bookstores in the Bible Belt.

 

Just a few years ago, we had weeks of protests and boycotts on a Blockbuster that let a local gay newspaper set up a distribution box outside the store.

 

Fundies tend to be douchebags about censorship, and a lot of businesses just don't want to put up with the hassle they create.

[Lycorth]

I can see it becoming very widespread. Xians don't have nearly the power or control everyone else thinks they have in America - or they wish they had. If bookstores can have New Age sections and sections for Gay and Lesbian books, a section on Atheism is just par for the course. With enough time and pressure, Atheist sections will be very commonplace

[garrisonjj]

Minnesota Atheists

 

Good! It is about time we open up our minds to all forms of thinking, not just the christian mind control bullshit that floods the market. I hope this encourages authors to produce and publish more work.

[Guest Marty]

If I had a book shop I would be tempted to put bibles and such books in the humour section.

 

 

I was with a friend in my local Barnes & Nobel's religion section, and it was divided into Religion and religious fiction (Left Behind, C.S. Lewis, etc). There were several people browsing through books at the time, so I pointed at the religious fiction sign and said loud enough so everyone could hear,

 

"Isn't that a misnomer? ALL religious material is fiction writing!"

[Former Follier]

After you've finished reading them, I expect you to write a book of your own, so we can fill up a wide rack of our own.[/font]

 

I've already started

Once you've completed your work, how do you go about getting it published?

[R. S. Martin]

The reason I had to buy these books is that the people who borrow them from the public library don't return them. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the library in Powell is directly across the street from a megachurch.

 

Are you talking about out-right theft? In the name of god? How is that letting their light shine???

 

Theft is theft. If god is almighty then he can convert people even through atheistic writings just as good as satan can deconvert them through religious writings. This sounds to me like corruption in high places, the abomination of desolation (how does that go???) where it ought not be. And it's Christians who are being it.

[R. S. Martin]

Ruby, I actually had that very kind of conversation with a sales clerk at a local bookstore over the weekend. It was humorous... to a point:

...

 

When she told me which section to look in for Hitchens, she looked at me like I had just up-ended a recently slaughtered goat carcass and was sucking the blood from its neck wound.

 

Then again, I live in a relatively small town. There are more houses of worship in my community then there are fast food restaurants (this is America, after all). haha

 

Great story, FF. Thanks for sharing it. Now I know my imaginings weren't totally fantasy.

[R. S. Martin]

There's a name on here--a new member--that I don't know how to pronounce. I think it's Hebrew letters. In the profile she says says "soon to be Jew," so I guess it's Hebrew. Can you show me with English letters/sounds how it is pronounced? Thank you.

[Lycorth]

Are you talking about out-right theft? In the name of god? How is that letting their light shine???

 

Old habits die hard :angry:

[Purple]

It would be interesting if the bookstores actually did have a unique section for atheism/agnosticism, but honestly, I can't see it becoming widespread in this country. Even occult and fantasy, which is pretty mainstream stuff, can't be found in a lot of bookstores in the Bible Belt.

 

Just a few years ago, we had weeks of protests and boycotts on a Blockbuster that let a local gay newspaper set up a distribution box outside the store.

 

Fundies tend to be douchebags about censorship, and a lot of businesses just don't want to put up with the hassle they create.

 

 

The fantasy book section is hard for me to grasp. I'm in So Cal not exactly the bible belt granted. But the Barnes and Noble here the fantasy, and sci fi section is HUGE. There is even a whole isle that is just Star Trek books. (Not my thing but it must be someones)

 

The protest and boycott over the gay newspaper is easier to believe for me unfortunatly. I think a lot of xians would rather deal with an atheist then a gay christian. Atheists are just hurt, angry and too smart for their own good. Gays on the other hand are degenerate abominations that base their whole lives on sexuality.

 

Maybe that's just what I see though.

[Ro-bear]

Are you talking about out-right theft? In the name of god? How is that letting their light shine???

 

I don't know if I am or not; I only know I put my name on a waiting list and never get my turn. Perhaps the congregation takes it in turn to borrow the books, "lose" them, pay the fine, and then watch like a hawk for the replacement copy. Maybe that's a paranoid attitude, but I find it strange that all the atheist books are continually checked out and I don't get my turn. I really don't see Powell, Tennessee as a bastion of free thought.

[Jack]

I was with a friend in my local Barnes & Nobel's religion section, and it was divided into Religion and religious fiction (Left Behind, C.S. Lewis, etc). There were several people browsing through books at the time, so I pointed at the religious fiction sign and said loud enough so everyone could hear,

 

"Isn't that a misnomer? ALL religious material is fiction writing!"

 

Don't leave us hanging!

What happened?

[LithaB]

After you've finished reading them, I expect you to write a book of your own, so we can fill up a wide rack of our own.[/font]

 

I've already started

Once you've completed your work, how do you go about getting it published?

 

Hi FF,

The webmaster included a very informative link in his original post. Click on "write a book" in the 5th paragraph and you will get a thorough answer to your question. Much more than I could give you in one post

[quicksand]

Ruby, I actually had that very kind of conversation with a sales clerk at a local bookstore over the weekend. It was humorous... to a point:

When I lived in the country ghetto several years ago I had a dissimilar conversation at a bigbox chain bookstore. Turns out, she was an exchristian and an atheist as well. I was happy to meet another freethinker living in a town surrounded by fundies.