Barnes & Noble, Tracy, CA

Ok, ok. I apologise. Before I complained about the lack of bookstores in the County of Orange. Relatively speaking, however, the citizens of The OC have it good compared to other parts of The Great State of California.

I find myself in Tracy, California. Tracy? Yeah. Go to California, find San Fransisco, then go east. Then east a bit more. East. Bingo. There is a grand total of two bookstores in the fine city of Tracy. Which should I choose? I could go to either "Libreria Cristiana Boutique Genesis" - which I think is Spanish for "Genesis Christian Bookstore", or a mysterious place of business called "Barnes & Noble". Since by definition all creationist books are religion, all intelligent design books will be correctly shelved in a bookstore called "Genesis". I also don't speak Spanish. Off I go to Barnes & Noble.

The science section:


A familiar pattern - Behe's two books are incorrectly shelved. Also eleven copies of Dawkins' The God Delusion are present. It looks like books railing against religion aren't too popular in rural California - surprise surprise. I boldly snatch the four copies of the comically bad The Edge of Evolution and the lone copy of Darwin's Black Box and helpfully moved to "Christian Inspiration", in correct alphabetical order, naturally.


A past poll on this blog determined that I should also be reshelving The God Delusion, as it is a book on God, and not science. It's not that it's pseudoscience - it's simply not science, but religion, or philosophy. I relocated two of the eleven copies to philosophy (perhaps "Theology" would have been more appropriate).


"Why just two copies?!, why not all of them?" you cry. Well, there was not enough room in the philosophy section for them all. This may sound like a lame excuse because it is. I was also a bit intimidated at wandering from on side of the store to the other with a stack of eleven very shiney silver hardback books with nowhere to put them, being eyed suspiciously by store employees. If any Tracy people want to help me out here then please go ahead and aid this bookstore.

~ Ste