Prescription: Sample Your Wares

Bookstores are among my favorite businesses on the planet. One of the neat things that's been happening in the last few years is the survival and strengthening of the independent bookstore. Endangered and dying in the 1990s because of giants like Border's and Barnes and Noble, the independent store watched the megabox domination crumble when pushed up against Amazon. A well-run bookstore is one of my most-loved places to be, and one where I can easily waste more hours in a day than is good for my punctuality.

But sometimes they're stupid, such as the Whitcoulls chain in New Zealand. In the aftermath of the horrible massacre in Christchurch, the chain has pulled from its shelves the book 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson.

Peterson is a Canadian professor who has gained a significant following with his no-nonsense approach to what can seem to be a crazy modern world. He's gotten flack for refusing to use people's preferred pronouns when addressing them if those pronouns contrast with their obvious gender. In 12 Rules, he offers some common-sense ways for people to help reduce stress in their own lives and make them better people for themselves as well as those around them. A self-declared agnostic, Peterson has no real problem with those who adapt his rules to fit a more religious way of life even though he doesn't really frame them that way. He is not known for any public stance on Islam or its practitioners. The book itself does not address Islam or argue against it.

Current speculation is that someone in the chain saw a picture of Peterson hugging a fan, who was wearing a T-shirt that said, "I am an Islamophobe." Because of this, it's thought, the chain feared he might be linked to anti-Muslim sentiment. We don't know, because Whitcoulls isn't talking.

We do know, however, that among the books still on their shelves and available for online ordering is a book called My Struggle, written while the author was in prison for treason. Published in 1925, you would probably know it better by its title in the author's native German language: Mein Kampf.