BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?

Subject: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 01:07 AM

From the Associated Press:

Pre-Orders Surge for O.J. Simpson Book
August 26, 2007

Many links

NEW YORK - A week ago, Barnes & Noble, Inc., announced it would not keep copies of the new edition of O.J. Simpson's If I Did It in its stores, saying the book was not expected to sell well.

Since then, the book has jumped into the top 50 on the superstore's online site, Barnes & Noble.com, and ranked No. 48 as of Sunday night. Barnes & Noble has not changed its mind. "We still have no plans to stock it in our stores," spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating told The Associated Press on Sunday. The book, coming out this fall, can be purchased through Barnes & Noble.com, or by special order at a Barnes & Noble store.

Simpson's book was first scheduled for publication last November by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins, with an announced printing of 400,000. But "If I Did It" was dropped in response to widespread outrage, including from relatives of murder victims Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The book is a ghostwritten, hypothetical description of how the killings might have happened.

But last month, a federal bankruptcy judge awarded rights to the book to Goldman's family to help satisfy a $38 million wrongful death judgment against Simpson. If I Did It, spurned by mainstream publishers, is being reissued by Beaufort Books, a small press based in New York. The Goldmans are calling the book a confession, and extensive commentary will be added to the original manuscript.

Eric Kampmann, the owner and president of Beaufort Books, has questioned Barnes & Noble's reason for not stocking the book, telling the AP in a recent interview that he suspects the superstore's executives were "making their decision based on the HarperCollins experience, which was a totally different situation."

A rival chain, Borders Group Inc., will stock the book, but, according to spokeswoman Ann Binkley, "will not promote or market the book in any way."

Interest jumped last week after TV host Oprah Winfrey announced that on Sept. 13 she would bring together Denise Brown, Nicole Brown Simpson's sister; and Goldman's parents, Fred and Kim Goldman. Brown has accused the Goldmans of hypocrisy for publishing a book that he had called "disgusting and despicable" when Simpson first planned to publish it.

Simpson has maintained his innocence in the 1994 killings in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles.

I don't plan to read the book, for many reasons. First, I'm too busy to waste my time on it. Second, I think he's guilty as hell and to publish this is a bizarre attention-getting device. Double jeopardy may protect his sorry ass, but this is book sounds like the zenith in bad taste (a philosophical oxymoron, that). The Brown and Goldman families have found a novel way (pardon the pun) to get their cash and end up back in the news. And the story wouldn't be complete without another squabble.

Ah, well. At least it will knock Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie off the front page.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 02:48 AM

That is one book I am content to pick up when it is in a second hand thrift store knocked down to 25 cents. I recognize that the money won't be going into Simpson's pocket but I wouldn't want him to have the satisfaction of thinking that people consider him worth another thought.

And when it comes to murder and other heinous crimes I don't understand the concept of double jeopardy at all. When new evidence may come to light, why shouldn't the crime be forever looming?

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: kendall
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 06:48 AM

Not just NO,,, F**K NO!!

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 07:01 AM

No, I've been reading too much fiction lately as it is.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 07:39 AM

What the Capt'n said...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 08:31 AM

Short answer - no. But that's purely because I have no interest in doing so.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 08:53 AM

Not even 2nd hand.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 09:18 AM

The Goldman family wanted pub rights not to make money from sales but to deprive Simpson of any income from sales. So, no, I will not purchase.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 09:30 AM

I won't have any choice, professionally, but to purchase a couple copies. But I won't buy it for myself OR read it.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: maeve
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 10:37 AM

No, no, never, never, uh, uh, uh!

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 10:42 AM

Don't make any decision on this case until you read the book by Dr. Henry Lee which discusses it. Dr. Henry Lee is the highly respected medical exmaminer of Connecticut who has done much to improve forensic medicine. I'm sorry I can't remember which book of his discusses this case, but did you know...

1. The prosecution prsented a blood sample that they said came from Simpson's bedroom, and it already had lab preservatives in it on arrival at the lab?

2. When police arrived at the crime scene, somebody carelessly picked up a glove from the ground and tossed it onto Ron Goldman's body, thereby contaminating the glove and destroying possible evidence. Lee seemed particularly incensed at the stupidity of that.

3. There was a bloodstain on the back gate which a cop pointed out to a detective, but that blood stain wasn't sampled for months.

2. After the trial was over, the LAPD did a thorough sweeping out of its homicide detectives because it was so embarrassed.

Anybody who is interested in crime, crime-solving and intellectual pursuits in general will find Henry Lee's books good reading.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Alice
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 10:48 AM

absolutely not

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 11:49 AM

People who know that Henry Lee has manipulated scene evidence himself (review judge's ruling on Lee in current Phil Spector trial) don't buy his star image or his self-aggrandizing "conclusions" at face value.

ONE example: 1. The prosecution prsented a blood sample that they said came from Simpson's bedroom, and it already had lab preservatives in it on arrival at the lab?

The "preservative" tested for tests so similarly to laundry detergent that a positive test result for either suggest, also, that it COULD be the other. Soapy sox!?!?! Try it yourself-- wash a load of oft-laundered items in plain water. Before it goes into the drain-to-rinse spin, look in and see all the pretty soap bubbles you've washed out of the clothes. Add a little Calgon water softener and see even more.

But Henry knows the "truth!" Sure. And OJ is innocent.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 11:58 AM

Ha!

Not till I finish reading the Beijing phone directory.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 12:05 PM

why would I read it? CNN will have 37 interns reading & exerpting it 18 minutes after it is released, with synopses re-played for months.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 12:06 PM

NO but I might see the Simpson movie.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 12:14 PM

I will read it if I can get a copy for free, and if O.J. will pay me $50/hour for doing so....

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 12:16 PM

Clever, Don!

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 12:19 PM

Is this the book in which OJ Simpson tells all about his affair with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohman and Johnny Depp and Peggy Lee and The Truth About What Happened Between Lambchop And Mortimer Snerd?

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 12:32 PM

How do I say this without sounding snippy? Hmmmmm. Here goes:

I read voraciously. I am under no illusions about my habits and I feel no need to 'abstain' from something that will, either way, matter not a whit to anyone else. Therefore, if some time in the future I come across a copy and feel like reading it at that time, that's what I will do.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 12:34 PM

Perhaps. When you finish reading it, you might ask "Is That All There Is?"

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 12:44 PM

no

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: frogprince
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 01:00 PM

I tried to come up with a clever personal response, but I decided Kendall had said it best for me, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Becca72
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 01:32 PM

I have to admit a morbid curiosity to read it, but I will not. I won't give that murderer one cent of my money.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Peace
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 02:06 PM

I would sooner drink liquid s#it than read his book.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 02:10 PM

Hmm. Well, it's a good thing you are not required to make that choice, isn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Amos
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 02:27 PM

If you were an astronaut, you wouldn't have a choice -- you'd have to drink whatveer tthe recycller served you!! But you wouldn't have to read the book.

Me, I have much better reading to do.

And writing.

The book is either fiction (assuming he's innocent) or thinly disguised fact (assuming he is guilty). In neither case does it hold an attraction to me, as there is much better fiction to be read, and I prefer my facts unvarnished and untwisted in someone's self-service, if possible.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 02:32 PM

It's time for a whole new thread on this subject...

"Will you go golfing with O.J.?"

"Will you go out for coffee with O.J.?"

"Will you help O.J. launch his new theme park?"

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 02:41 PM

Maybe I ought to read it, as it should have a lot of humor in it...I hear OJ is quite a cut-up...

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: GUEST,Texas Guest
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 05:00 PM

O.J. who?

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Peace
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 05:03 PM

"Hmm. Well, it's a good thing you are not required to make that choice, isn't it?"

What choice? It's a no-brainer.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 05:04 PM

No, no...I mean if you HAD to do one or the other. You don't have to do either as far as I can see. At least....I hope not.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Peace
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 05:15 PM

Well, with a little salt and some ketchup . . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Aug 07 - 08:13 PM

"But Henry knows the "truth!" Sure. And OJ is innocent."

I don't say OJ was innocent. I do think there is room for doubt.

That trial was a cruel farce. One thing nobody seems to care about is the imposition it was upon the jurors. If I had been a juror, I would have gone to court for my rights.

Well, I have tried to research the issue of the rights of jurors. They don't seem to have any.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 12:23 AM

One thing nobody seems to care about is the imposition it was upon the jurors.

Not true, the subject just hasn't come up. I will concede that in addition to slaying Ron Goldman and his ex-wife Nicole, he slew a lot of time in the lives of those jurors. It would have been torturous to sit through all of that nonsense his defense team came up with.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 12:33 AM

The thing I love was how "innocent" he acted just before he got arrested....

What a sad farce the whole thing was.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 09:11 AM

Please note: OJ Simpson was NOT found "innocent" of the crimes. He was found "Not Guilty."

There's a difference.

I so wish the US had the "Not Proven" verdict.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 09:28 AM

My husband is a great reader of history. Me, not so much, but I do pick up the best of his books. He says it takes ten years to know the truth about any big story in the news.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: pattyClink
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 09:48 AM

Rapaire, I am amazed a library will actually 'have to' purchase this trash. Can't anybody in this society make a stand of any kind? Seems like, although some sleazy publisher wants to print it, it would have still be stopped dead in its tracks by a few large chainstores, or an association of independents. Apparently they still want to make a buck at any cost. But what kind of rationale can libraries have for buying this? Yes, I know some people will request it. They probably also enjoy reading Hustler and Soldier of Fortune, but they aren't (are they?) on the library shelves.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 09:52 AM

Absolutely not. Better to just send some $$ to whatever charities the Goldman family supports, rather than bestow additional attention on a sociopath.

~D

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 11:08 AM

Norberg did it.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 11:22 AM

As Rapaire notes, he was simply found "Not Guilty"....meaning they were unable to absolutely prove beyond reasonable doubt that he was the murderer.

In other words, the jury may have believed he was the murderer, but they did not have absolute proof that he was, and that's what the law technically requires to deliver a "Guilty" verdict.

This is the stuff lawyers play with in the game referred to as "justice"...

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: pattyClink
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 12:27 PM

I understand people can legally publish and sell such a book. But standards of taste used to keep such crap in the dark corners where it belonged, not in the downtown library.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 12:33 PM

Madonna's book, "Sex." Anything by Danielle Steel. Anything by Jackie Collins. The "Longarm" series of paperback westerns. Ann Coulter's last book.

We buy them because people want to read them. Are they good writing? Do I (or anyone else on the staff) agree with them?

Or do I detect a note of censorship here?

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: pattyClink
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 01:20 PM

Yeah, I guess I must be an evil censor. But according to your rationale, your shelves should be filled with x-rated books and videos by now because 'people want to read them'. Or are you censoring? It's all a matter of degree, and to me the line gets crossed with this book.

I guess it bothers me because I think the coarsening of our civilization is made up of little decisions like this. It does have an effect.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 02:00 PM

You bet we censor! Only we call it "selection" and every library does it.

We serve the people in our community, and we provide them with what they want to read. We recently bought 35 copies of the last Harry Potter book, even though letters condemning as promoting witchcraft and paganism appeared in the paper. I did not want to buy Ann Coulter's last book, but we had patrons ask for it so we bought A copy.

As for coarsening society, should we stock any of these: Mein Kampf; The Old Testament; The Complete Jack The Ripper; Huckleberry Finn; Cyrano de Bergerac; Macbeth; The Joy of Sex? How about such pictures as Guernica or Goya's executions? Shall we stock DVDs of All Quiet On The Western Front and Full Metal Jacket?

The public library is NOT a place for my opinion or yours to dominate. We select what appears to us to be the best available material at this time that deals with BOTH sides of an issue and will let YOU make up your own mind.

Were I to fail to buy this book because of my own personal beliefs in the matter, I would be as guilty of censorship as those librarians of yesteryear who banner "Nancy Drew" and "The Hardy Boys" because they weren't "literature" or the Brownshirts burning the works of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud because they were Jewish.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 02:07 PM

I agree with Rapaire's stance here. I don't want my library to pick and choose what I shall read. A library is EVERYONE'S place. In other words, if people demand access to a certain book, the money should be spent to put it in stock.

There is MANY a book that I will never read, for whatever reason: It may be on a subject that is of no interest or relevance to me, it may be poorly written, it may have a distasteful content, it I may have read other books by the same author and not be interested further in what s/he has to say... There are a lot of reasons, as I say.

Sometimes I read things only for the purpose of discovering what opposing view is being espoused. I don't want anyone to take away that right.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 02:27 PM

Well said, Rapaire. I am not afraid of O.J.'s book. I am not afraid of seeing it sitting on a bookstore or library shelf. I do not feel that I must prevent other people from suffering the shock and horror of seeing that book or some other book sitting on a shelf in a library or bookstore. ;-)

I just don't want to read it, that's all. If they don't want to read it either, then they don't have to, right? How does it hurt them if they don't read it? If they don't want anyone at all to be allowed to read it, then they've got one hell of a problem.....and they are desirous of living in a society that enforces mind control.

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 02:30 PM

The policy adopted at the university library where I work is that if patrons request a work through ILL (Interlibrary Loan) that isn't already in our collection then we'll go ahead and order a copy. ILL is a great way for patrons to cast votes for what they want or need to read if the library staff is paying attention. Some things are rare or out of print or very very expensive so this might not work in all cases. When I was a graduate student and would get a book through ILL if it looked like a good one I'd then have to make the extra step to request that the library buy it so if I needed it again I could get it. I was probably more conscientious than many students in that extra step, but it saves time and money in the long run to have our own copy of a useful text.

As Rapaire said, you serve a diverse public. PattyClink, if you have those materials in a library where you also have a lot of very good materials, perhaps a little cross-pollination will occur and they'll get some good reading in at the same time.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Will you read O.J.'s Book?
From: pattyClink
Date: 28 Aug 07 - 04:09 PM

Sheesh, I'm not burning books because I would prefer limited tax dollars be spent on higher quality material. The only signal publishers get are dollar signs, and I can't see adding to the sales count of this book. But I have offended the sensibilities of everybody here, so I will shut up about it. Read and enjoy.