The Inquisition All Over Again

As a lover of books, I hate it when books are used as propaganda. (It's one of my chief issues with Ayn Rand.) It's happening in Europe.

Human rights groups sent out an alert warning Italians of Oriana Fallaci 's latest book. Fallaci has written two worldwide bestsellers and a number of other platforms for propaganda. Her latest book warns Europeans about the "Arab Invasion", comparing Muslims in Europe to the burning of Troy.

She is another author telling her scores of fans which group of people to allow, and which to throw out. Her book feeds on the fear of foreigners, a xenophobic attitude always an issue in portions of Italy. She is telling people that it's okay to be racist and calling for the exile of Arabs from Europe. The more books like this are published, the more mainstream the ideas of hatred become, until it is not only tolerable to persecute a group of people, it is the norm.

This is disgusting.

Cheers to the Phoenixville Public Library, in Pennsylvania. They thought up a program that had children reading books and watching the movies side by side. This way, children could see where things are based from and get the true experience. It is aimed to create a love of reading in the next generation.

Small blurb about our neighbors to the north. With the gigantic success of Bill Clinton's My Life, as people are still lining the streets to get autographed copies of his book, Canadian publishers are rolling out autobiography after autobiography for their fall catalogues. Long lists of Canadian dignitaries, actors and politicians join the ranks of authors this season. I'm thinking that the same will be true of our Fall List.

In more international news (today's entry is turning into the international issue), England is following the America's trend of multinational conglomerate media companies, replacing independent book publishers. Sigh.

Just Finished
Good as Gold. Joseph Heller. Dell Publishing. 447 pgs.