"You Can Tell This Book by Its Cover!"

I have a small library in my home; it is my most peaceful room. I have a small love seat and an easy chair, three lamps and five bookcases which are filled with numerous works of both fiction and non-fiction. I have a record player in the room; it is the only place where I can listen to my treasured vinyl records, no matter how good CDs may be, there is something about that soft and crackly sound of a vinyl album.

My favorite author is Ernest Hemingway, and he has been since high school. Hemingway put his entire life experiences into his writing and they were almost impossible to put down. I also like John Updike, Leo Tolstoy and Ayn Rand. I sometimes read some Shakespeare when I know no one is looking!

Living in a university town, I am fortunate because each year they have book sales at both the book store and the library. I have the opportunity to buy last year’s text books, and being a history buff, I feel quite blessed about this. I also have the opportunity to find books which, over the course of time, I have either worn out, or forgotten about. I found a copy of a book called “The Earth Abides”, a science fiction work I read when I was twelve years old; I can’t tell how elated I was to find and purchase that book!

America is a treasure trove of literary excellence, with authors of every type from philosophy to humor and even “do it yourself books”. I know the INTERNET has given the local library a “run for its money” when it comes to attracting readership, but there is something about holding a book in your hands, smelling those pages, and escaping into the printed word. I hope America never loses its value of the printed words of legendary authors. Longfellow, Sandburg, Steinbeck, Buck and Hemingway wrote words that should never be lost, and I hope they never are.

All of the above statements I have made touch me profoundly, as I am a lover of free speech and our 1^st. amendment. This being expressed, I would like to bring something to your attention. Some books should be allowed to go “out of print” never to be resurrected again! On April 25, 2012, the province of Bavaria announced that it was planning to publish “Mein Kampf” again for the first time since 1945. This isn’t the work of Nietzsche we are talking about, this is the work of a man who most normal people regard as the most EVIL MAN IN HISTORY! Now, I must admit that I have read a great portion of this work, and it is a blueprint of Hitler’s twisted logic in his guidance through the NAZI philosophy. This has been available on the INTERNET for a long time, and I’m sure that a plethora of “low foreheads” have enjoyed the ravings of the “Little Corporal” to their hearts content.

So, why am I so upset by this coming out in book form again? This is just like Mao’s “Little Red Book” that the hippies and SDS folks liked so much during the ‘60s, and twisted them into some of those OCCUPY MORONS we have today.

Germany had Wagner, Freud, Brahms and Beethoven, this is the heritage that they need to remember and promote. Raising the image of early NAZISM is not what you should be remembering. Remember when Hitler had those books burned; perhaps this one should have been in that fire!