One's private reading room reveals A. Hitler's "Mein Kampf" is #1

Roll over Dickens and Asimov. What is next...quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung's Little Red Book or Karl Marx's Das Kapital?

"Mein Kampf becomes an ebook bestseller"

Digital editions of Adolf Hitler's fascist screed, in less public format, attract surge in readers

by

Alison Flood   

January 9th, 2014

theguardian.com

Digital editions of Mein Kampf have become a surprise hit online, according to author Chris Faraone, who has suggested that the newfound popularity of Adolf Hitler's tract is down to the fact that it can now be consumed "in the privacy of our own iPads".

Writing on the website Vocativ.com, author and journalist Faraone claims that "more than a dozen free English-language versions of Mein Kampf have been downloaded in excess of 100,000 times from the nonprofit Internet Archive alone", while paid-for e-versions are outselling Glenn Beck on iTunes and entering the charts on Amazon.com - with a 99-cent version currently topping the retailer's propaganda and political psychology chart .

In the UK, an ebook of Mein Kampf, retailing for 99p, tops Amazon.co.uk's propaganda and spin chart and its fascism and Nazism chart, and sits in second place in its political science and ideology bestseller list.

Another 99-cent version, from publisher Elite Minds, sits in 11th place in Amazon.com's World War II charts. "Sales are great," publisher Michael Ford, told Faraone, admitting to the "moral dilemma" he would face if he were to promote the book and advocate "something that could be misused". "I have not heavily promoted the book and decided, for the most part, to let it spread among those who have a true historical and academic interest naturally," said Ford.

Print sales of Mein Kampf are negligible, but Faraone believes the title's resurgence in digital format could be "a cultural curiosity much like what's happened with sleazy romance novels, which surveys show are increasingly consumed in more clandestine e-form".

"People might not have wanted to buy Mein Kampf at Borders or have it delivered to their home or displayed on their living room bookshelf, let alone get spotted reading it on a subway, but judging by hundreds of customer comments online, readers like that digital copies can be quietly perused then dropped into a folder or deleted," writes Faraone. "Similar comments have been made about the erotic smash hit 50 Shades of Grey [but] compared to Mein Kampf, books about chains and leather seem pretty soft core."

"Mein Kampf"...a best seller?

This is a curious news story. Book sellers will market what they think will sell. After all, the end product is revenue. This controversy is mute. Perhaps Muslims are horribly offended by lavish displayed bible marketing or by mass marketing techniques of the Harry Potter books.

"Mein Kampf tagged as 'perfect present' by Waterstone's"

Adolf Hitler's antisemitic manifesto included among Christmas picks by Huddersfield branch

by

Alison Flood

December 23rd, 2011

guardian.co.uk

The UK's biggest book chain, Waterstone's, has apologised after one of its branches pushed Adolf Hitler's manifesto Mein Kampf as the "perfect" Christmas present.

Amid the glossy hordes of titles by Jeremy Clarkson, Lee Evans and Jamie Oliver for sale this Christmas, the Huddersfield branch of Waterstone's used a festive sticker to describe Mein Kampf (My Struggle), the antisemitic diatribe written by Hitler in prison before he rose to power in 1933, as the "perfect present". A staff recommendation described it as "an essential read for anyone seeking to understand one of history's most despicable figures. A shocking read and a vital warning for future generations."

According to the Jewish Chronicle, Waterstone's shops in Manchester, Liverpool and Cheshire were also pushing the book by displaying the front covers of multiple copies to shoppers.

"When challenging one of the staff in Manchester's Deansgate branch, I was told that it was 'a Christmas bestseller which sold really well'. A dubious justification indeed for selling this hateful work," Jewish travelling salesman Jonathan Levine told the paper. "I would be most obliged if Waterstone's would explain what lies behind the apparent zeal on their part to promote this disgusting work."

A spokesman for the bookseller told the Guardian that that the Huddersfield shop had "used an inappropriate point of sale" sticker on the book.

"That has now been remedied and won't happen again, and we have apologised," said the spokesman. "Usually it is kept in with books on world war two or German history. One shop did put it in with politics which is not appropriate. We have dealt with that too."