In the past, I have talked with two managers of Borders stores about books not being on their shelves, even when they are on the New York Times Best Seller List. So I was not surprised to read that Borders is in bankruptcy!

During one presidential campaign there was a book written by some veterans about one of the candidates. I know the authors and many of the contributors. It was a fact-checked book and I personally knew many of them to be true, but it was widely panned by those on one side of our political spectrum as a pack of lies. I bought several a week from several different bookstores and passed them out to people to read so they knew the truth about one of that candidates. I probably bought at least a hundred of them.

When I stopped at a Northern Virginia Borders to buy some copies, I could not find them on the shelf or on the New York Times table. I asked one of the clerks and they did not know why it was not available. I asked to speak to the manager. The manager told me she did not believe an untruthful book should be sold. I told her I knew it to be true and I would contact her corporate headquarters about her not stocking it.

I contacted the corporate headquarters and they told me none of their managers would not stock New York Times bestsellers or any other book as long as customers were buying them. I said that this manager (and later another store manager) did not stock all of them. A week later, I walked into the store. The book was not on the table but two of them were on the shelf. I bought the two and told the clerk I would be back the next day for two more. I never returned and have never gone into another Borders.

But I did go to a nearby Barnes and Noble and did not find their managers banning books from their stores. I continue to visit Barnes and Nobles and other bookstores when I want to see what has been recently published in my areas of interest, but you will never find me in a Borders.