Book Soup is a famous Los Angeles-based bookstore on the Sunset Strip that sells a wide range of books stacked from the floor to the ceiling. At Book Soup, you can find art books, lots of fiction, biographies, books by special interest, textbooks, social studies – essentially any book of every genre that exists. The store was established in 1975 and since then has become a pillar of LA’s literary/book reader community, sometimes even visited by celebrities and often visited by tourists and students. Considering the extinction of the majority of brick-and-mortar bookstores, Book Soup managed to survive despite this unfortunate trend, perhaps in part due to its proud position in the community as an independent bookstore and a breeding ground for diversity of worldviews reflected in the books it sells and inclusion of all genres for all tastes.
Book Soup even has a special consignment program for local authors to feature their books on the store’s website and on its shelves.
I am a first-time author who has experimented with my writing skills as a hobby and managed to self-publish my non–fiction book called Victims of Compassion. I submitted the book to the Book Soup consignment program and paid for it as the store initially expressed interest. As a first-time author, I was, of course, flattered, felt humbled, and was delighted to learn of this wonderful opportunity to feature my book at Book Soup. For the sake of fairness, I will admit that my book doesn’t respect any established conventions of “polite book writing,” whatever that means; its tone is at times abrasive and harsh, and it is not written to make people feel good – it is written to make people re-examine their moral values. This book uses language and imagery that some people might find offensive (although the book doesn’t use any indecent imagery, racial slurs, or profanities). In a nutshell, it’s a civilized enough common-sense type book for readers of any background to read even though it is politically incorrect. The message of the book is focused on describing the basis for progressive/liberal ideology, why it is wrong, and how to behave and survive in a society dominated by various types of parasites, progressives, and liberals. I used California, where I have lived since 1991, as an example of such a society.
If Book Soup were a truly independent bookstore that is not dedicated to promoting exclusively progressive ideology, they would have no problem putting my book on display. But they rejected my application as soon as they learned about the content of the book we submitted. Half an hour after several books had been dropped off for the consignment program, the store manager, Ms. Jessica Amodeo, in no uncertain terms sent me a one-liner saying, “After careful consideration, we have decided not to carry this title in our inventory.” No explanation why, and “careful consideration” took only about 30 minutes for Ms. Amodeo! I was shocked and decided to go there in person and inquire with her about what happened.
When I showed up at the store with her rejection letter after 11 am on Monday, November 11, 2024, Ms. Amodeo was NOT pleased to see me but graciously agreed to briefly explain to me why my book was rejected by the store. Even though it wasn’t cold inside the store, Ms. Amodeo, an older white lady, probably in her mid-60s, wore a knit winter hat. Ms. Amodeo greeted me with a very cold, formal, dry bureaucratic smile. When I introduced myself as the author of the book she had rejected and showed her the rejection letter, Ms. Amodeo sternly looked at me through her glasses as if I were a major nuisance and, with an irritated tone, told me that she had already informed us that the store was not interested in carrying my book, so what else did I want (basically)? I asked her about the reasons why they rejected the book, and she pointed her finger at the cover of the book, specifically at the word “parasite” (California is referred to as a “golden parasite state” on the cover of the book). She said, “We don’t subscribe to this terminology when referring to groups of people.” I said, “But what if they are actually parasites?” She was not keen on engaging in any intellectual debates and rushed to stop the discussion. She added that “We are going through difficult times,” alluding to election results, to which I replied, “Well, I am actually celebrating…”
I indicated to her that I do realize the incompatibility of my book ideas with the ideas their store seems to be promoting, but I still feel she is doing a great disservice to her customers by not giving them access to some alternative views and freedom of speech. She said that they are not in the business of banning books, and I responded that that was exactly what she was doing. She became even more upset, went to get my books, and returned them to me, ready to kick me out of the store. Then I said, “How about you put a disclaimer next to my book that your store strongly condemns the views expressed in the book but wants to respect freedom of thought and let customers judge for themselves and debate about the book” – wouldn’t that contribute to intellectual debate and freedom of thought? How frail your intellectual bubble must be to be vulnerable to the presence of one little book among thousands that is not consistent with the content and tone of your “merchandise”? Ms. Amodeo looked like she was about to explode and call the police on me and told me that she was concerned about the safety of her staff if such a book is on display in her store! I was taken aback by this and asked her, “What kind of violent customers do you have that they would attack your staff over a book?” At that juncture, it became clear that I needed to leave OR ELSE, and I thanked Ms. Amodeo for graciously taking the time to talk to me and left.
In Book Soup’s social studies section, they have plenty of political and social studies literature by famous and not-so-famous authors, but it is all essentially dedicated to either Trump- or MAGA-bashing or the promotion of a Democrat/liberal worldview, which is kind of expected in our Democrat-dominated state and one of its wokest neighborhoods. As a private company, they have the right to choose sides and pick and choose authors they want to work with or literature they want to sell. However, if Book Soup wants to present itself to the public as a breeding ground for freedom of thought, if they want to stimulate intellectual debates, expose their audience to diverse, sometimes controversial worldviews and opinions, they should not ban books solely based on content or the tone and terminology the book uses.
Book Soup is famous and carries thousands of books. They seem to be popular, although I am not sure what their financials look like given the general decline of brick-and-mortar bookstores. How can a tiny startup company, Dim Simple Media, which provided a total of 5 Victims of Compassion books for the Book Soup consignment section, threaten the peace and stability of the well-established cultural institution that Book Soup purports to be? Moreover, since when has ANY book, aside from Mein Kampf by Hitler or The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, caused a threat of violence?
Is Ms. Amodeo’s ban a narrow-minded panic of a woke intellectual who is out of touch with reality, OR does Book Soup actually attract crowds of rabid left-wing extremists unable to contain themselves when confronted with a book that effectively exposes and undermines their ideology? Are Book Soup’s customers as intolerant as Ms. Amodeo believes them to be? Would they actually assault Book Soup staff EVEN IF Book Soup puts up a disclaimer that they don’t support and strongly condemn the contents of the Victims of Compassion book?
Is this little book so powerful and hits the target so effectively that its influence could potentially rise to the inflammatory level of Mein Kampf or The Satanic Verses?
Does Ms. Amodeo see herself as a gatekeeper deserving a medal of honor for stopping a new version of “White Walker” fascism that she imagines my book to represent? Does she see herself as a visionary who realized before anyone else did how dangerous this book is?
Can a store manager in the declining bookstore industry stop ideas that are controversial in certain circles but common sense elsewhere from spreading by banning a book from a consignment stand? Because history tells us, if ideas are contagious, they’ll spread no matter what. In fact, censorship only helps to spread them because people love forbidden fruits and love to subvert censorship!
Do we even need free speech and intellectual debates when we have gatekeepers like Ms. Amodeo who will protect the public from ideas that are “poisonous” IN HER OPINION?
Probably, we need free speech to get second, third, and fourth opinions that are DIFFERENT from Ms. Amodeo’s to compare and decide who has better ideas. Probably, Ms. Amodeo and the like should not be in charge of controlling which ideas should see the light of day and which ones are “poisonous” and should be thwarted. Woke bookstore managers and intellectual debate managers (moderators) online should not be allowed to censor speech based on their personal views.
I would like to believe that Book Soup customers are better quality people than what Ms. Amodeo suggested they are and would not attack her and her staff simply because of our little book’s presence on their shelves! I’d like to believe that all of us should have the right of access to any books and ideas and decide which ideas we like and which ones we peacefully reject. We are not children, we don’t need thought police; we are all mature enough to pick and choose which ideas make sense to us and which ones don’t (and as the author of Victims of Compassion, I must say it contains plenty of common sense that, unfortunately, some may find offensive – common sense can be offensive!).
However, if someone is offended by some content, they should simply not read it or not buy it, but they should not have the power to deny others access to that content – otherwise, it is censorship, and censorship leads to real, not imaginary, tyranny.
Let people decide for themselves. Book Soup and Ms. Amodeo: this is not Game of Thrones, winter is NOT coming, we are not the White Walkers, and you are not the Night Watch, so feel free to take off that knit hat and OPEN UP your gates!
Dim Simple.
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