Amazon Banning Books

I blogged during book banning week about how much I hate it. I also stated on that blog that there was a big distributor that had some book titles up that I found personally disgusting, too, and that I dreaded the day I'd have to defend those books.

A while ago someone forwarded some information to me in which it was stated that several authors were having their books removed by Amazon due to having an incest theme. I followed the link I was given and discovered that some of those books may also have some issues with the age of consent as well.

It seems that Amazon also wiped these books clean from Kindles as well. And for that--Amazon should refund every dime. That's a given right there.

Now for the tricky part. Do I do what this forwarded email asks everyone to do---contact the head of Amazon and the board of directors in protest or simply let Amazon have at it. I mean, hell, I'd never read one of those books. Does the author have the right to write them? You bet. Does the author have the right to offer them for sale? You bet.

Does the author have the right to dictate to Amazon that it must sell their book? No. Amazon has the right to refuse service. And those authors and their readers have the right to never purchase another book from Amazon.

So, on the one hand I support those authors and their right to create the books they choose. I also support the readers decision to read whatever material they like. But at the same time, I can't support forcing a company to sell anything they don't want to sell. Does that support book banning? No, it doesn't. Just as you stop into one store and find adult magazines for sale, you might stop into another store and notice none there.

We're dealing with a business here, not a public library or school.

You always hear "It's a free country." Well, yeah, to an extent. You're free and your actions are unrestricted as long as you don't infringe upon anyone else's rights.

Amazon should have stricter content guidelines. And Amazon should ban all books with illegal content if that is what this is all about and not just pick and choose. I'm still not really clear on the why of it as the authors in question say they've been given no specific reason at this time--other than the fact that Amazon reserves the right to decide. And that IS their right.

So what do we do, people? Storm the gates of Amazon and tell them we're never going to buy another book from them if they don't sell these books? And if we do, are we saying that there could never be a case of a book going too far? Is the saying "Any book worth banning is a book worth reading" really true? What's your opinion on all this?