74-Year-Old Man Arrested for Destroying Kim Kardashian Books
- by Michael Stillman
"Selfish," by Kim Kardashian.
Carl Puia is not a hero. Many have made him out to be. The 74-year-old Glastonbury, Connecticut, native is clearly frustrated by the direction of society. His frustrations are understandable. I share them. Still, destroying books is not the answer. The problem is in us, not the books. I have no idea what the answer is, but this isn't it.
Carl Puia walked into a Barnes & Noble in his hometown last October and spilled some red liquid, perhaps ink, on six copies of Kim Kardashian's book, Selfish. In a tongue-in-cheek description of the crime, the Glastonbury police reported, "Six copies of the book were destroyed in the massacre and could not be revived." Somehow, he managed to escape and was not arrested until five months later, when he voluntarily turned himself in. Police were looking for him, though one imagines they couldn't have been looking all that hard. The crime was caught on the store's surveillance cameras and Mr. Puia made no attempt to disguise himself.
Mr. Puia left a long typed note at the scene of the crime. According to Glastonbury police, he expressed his dislike for Ms. Kardashian and people like her. He was booked and released on a $2,500 bond.
The website TMZ reported it had contacted Mr. Puia and gathered a few more details concerning his motivation. He reportedly told them that a child picked up a copy of Ms. Kardashian's book, which the mother had to take away and put back. Mr. Puia felt that Barnes & Noble, quite literally, was not keeping up with the Kardashians. The book was too close to eye level for children. It needed to be up higher. He said he went to a store employee and requested the books be put on a higher shelf. A few days later, he returned to Barnes & Noble and found the books still on the lower shelf. That is when he left the store to pick up the red liquid, returned, and spilled it on the six copies. Mr. Puia told TMZ that he didn't believe children should be exposed to such pornographic content.
Ms. Kardashian's book is at best soft porn by today's standards. It is a book of "selfies," and she is not always modestly dressed in the pictures. However, this book is more in keeping with Ms. Kardashian's celebrity image, that of an egotistical person with no particular talents, someone who is a celebrity for being a celebrity, kind of a circular explanation. The book is filled with amateur pictures she has taken of herself, be it around the house, the pool, with friends, or whatever other, not very exciting things, she does. The book would be of no interest if she wasn't a celebrity for no particular reason.
In defense of Ms. Kardashian, whom many consider to be vacuous, she (and her family) are great self-promoters. That is the one thing she does, and she does it very well. Self-promotion can take you a long way these days. Might even make you President someday. These days, even figures such as film stars or talented athletes have discovered self-promotion is important to achieving the greatest fame, and the rewards that come with it. That someone without such skills can self-promote herself to such great celebrity success anyway is utterly remarkable. It is not so much Ms. Kardashian who is vacuous, as are we, caring only for fame, with little concern as to whether it was earned for some worthy reason. The public adoration for people like Ms. Kardashian, over great scientists, writers, and other accomplished leaders, will not change because we destroy Ms. Kardashian's books. It is not her or her books that are at fault. We are.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.