PROTESTS FORCE WITHDRAWAL OF PEDOPHILE BOOK

Following a day when TV and radio talk shows focused on Amazon’s inclusion of The Pedophile’s Guide to Love & Pleasure on its Kindle ebook store, the online retailer has withdrawn the book. By Thursday afternoon, those broadcasts had prompted hundreds of postings on Facebook and Twitter calling for a boycott of Amazon, which had previously insisted that it was “censorship not to sell certain titles because we believe their message is objectionable.” However, the Los Angeles Times quickly discovered at least one other book available via Amazon that explores similar territory. The book, Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers, had prompted similar — but lower decible — outrage four years ago, according to a thread on Amazon’s Customer Discussion section. One message said, “You can forget my ever buying another book from your store. … How can you sleep at night when you sell a how-to-molest-children manual?”