May 4, 2005

Book suggests stores boycott of Left Behind series . . .

by

A new book about the phenomenally popular Left Behind book series suggests bookstores drop support of the book, according to a PW Daily report by Steven Zeitchik. The book, Skipping Toward Armageddon: The Politics and Propaganda of the Left Behind Novels and the LaHaye Empire, by Michael Standaert, takes aim at booksellers, who Standaert believes should stop supporting Left Behind. The book’s publisher, Richard Nash of Soft Skull, noted the idea is to persuade booksellers that “these books have more in common with The Turner Diaries and Mein Kampf than they do with The Purpose Driven Life and Tom Clancy.” Soft Skull will support the title at the upcoming BookExpo America, the American book industry’s annual convention, by distributing postcards that call on booksellers to move the Left Behind series “to the back of the stores.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

MobyLives