Shelf life. Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian
Here's one you might like. New blog Biologists Helping Bookstores - spotted via Jason Kottke - features a crusading scientist called Ste who tries reorganising bookshop shelves to prevent pseudoscience featuring in the science categories.
Take this recent entry, where the target was work by individuals like intelligent design "pioneer" Michael Behe:
Four copies of The Edge of Evolution were discovered once more in the science section. I flip a copy and read the back. Here's the beginning of the first quote from the back cover: "Until the past decade and the genomics revolution, Darwin's theory rested on indirect evidence and reasonable speculation..." (Dr. Philip Skell, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, at Pennsylvania State University, and member of the National Academy of Sciences). That's not true! I am emboldened by this bare-faced lie from this well-respected elderly chemist, pick up all four copies, and stroll upstairs.
Now, I aim for accuracy in my recategorization... so I sought out the most appropriate section of the store: Behe's lie-covered volume now rightly resides in the Religious Fiction section. A job well done.
Behe (if you didn't know) is one of the leading thinkers behind the intelligent design movement - and the fellow that honed the theory of irreducible complexity that underpins many a Creationist argument.
I've heard of people doing this with political books (usually for party political reasons) but I'm liking this effort to increasing amounts of pseudo-scientific gabble that's taking over.
Now I'm trying to think of some offensively-labelled titles that could do with a little guerrilla librarianship. Hmmm.
