The special relationship is being turned on its head, with US peace activists following the lead of their British counterparts to launch a campaign to reshelve George Bush's new memoir, Decision Points, "where it belongs": in the crime section of their local bookshops.

Inspired by a British campaign which saw Tony Blair's autobiography, A Journey, appearing under crime, horror and even fantasy in UK bookshops, the protest blog Waging Nonviolence is urging its supporters to "Move Bush's Book Where It Belongs", and post pictures of the autobiography in its new location on a campaign Facebook page.

According to the campaign organiser Jasmine Faustino, Bush's memoir "defends several of the criminal policies that he implemented during his time in office, including the invasion of Iraq and the use of waterboarding". She calls on readers to "reshelve the book to where it really belongs", and "take a picture of your 'mission accomplished'".

Lyndsey German of UK anti-war group Stop the War Coalition was delighted to hear the campaign had spread to the US.

"It shows how much feeling there is on both sides of the Atlantic and we can only reciprocate by doing the same for the book over here," she said, pledging to encourage all the group's supporters to turn out again for the Bush book, "especially as he's justified torture on the grounds it kept London safe."

German said that thousands of people had joined the reshelving Blair campaign earlier this autumn. "Lots of people, including groups of students at the beginning of term, organised to go together to bookshops and move books into crime, or horror, or dark fantasy," she said. "We heard about some of the members of staff doing it too – a lot of people who work in bookshops are very radical." The campaign worked because it was "easy to do, and a bit cheeky and funny", with word spread via Facebook and Twitter.

Blair was forced to cancel his only appearance in a London bookshop, after protesters in Dublin greeted the publication of his autobiography with eggs, bottles and shoes. According to Bush's UK publisher, Virgin Books, the former US president has no plans to visit the UK "at this stage", though they declined to say whether the possibility of unfriendly fire had influenced his decision.