Moazzam Begg has written a book. I read about it this morning in The Sunday Times Culture supplement of March 19, 2006 (I’m a little behind). The book is called Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim’s Journey to Guantanamo and Back.
The book review mentions that Begg had been appearing on UK talk shows to promote his book. I began to wonder if he would be appearing on any US talk shows. That line of thought led me to wonder whether his book would even be available in the US, so I checked both amazon UK and amazon US in order to compare.
amazon UK. I searched books for “Begg”. As I expected, his book was at number one on the list of “most popular results for Begg”. The amazon price, by the way, is £11.38, while the book jacket price is £18.99.
amazon US – same approach to the search. I found books by several other authors with the surname Begg, but not Enemy Combatant. Then I noticed that above the books, amazon offered me “Related searches: enemy combatant; moazzam begg; guantanamo”. I clicked on each of the related search options in turn, and was offered only books that mention one or more of those terms. In short, what I found was that the book is not being offered on amazon US.
I understand that the book may not yet be released in the US, but amazon often lists books before they come out so that they can take advance orders.
So then I decided to search Barnes & Noble – nothing. I searched allbookstores.com – nothing. I searched the New York Times for any mention of the book – nothing. I will be very interested to see if and when Moazzam Begg’s book comes out in the US. If it does not appear in the very near future, I will be very disappointed indeed.
2 comments:
Asshole, I am not saying whether the man is innocent or guilty of anything. I just happen to believe that a book about Guantanamo Bay that was written by a former prisoner should be available for sale in the US.
Those who don't like it can burn it, I suppose, along with all the other books they find distasteful and/or against their own politics.
Interesting article, A-hole, thanks. The situation with City Lights seems to be an example of people trying so hard to be as liberal as they can be that they actually lose the plot.
I had a small problem with Ferlinghetti and City Lights about 12 years ago, at which time my respect for them diminished. However I do hope that they will carry Begg's book because someone should.
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