You bring up a good point that small book stores face the challenge of keeping massive inventory or paying higher prices. It’s a tough one, but if the small store understands where they compete (and where they don’t), I believe they can stay afloat in the sea of mass consumerism.

I think there’s room for both!

You know, people say they still want that experience, but they won’t cough up the extra money to pay for books the shop owners can’t purchase at the massive-quantity dirt-cheap rate.

I absolutely love the bookstore experience. The interactions, the sales people with a light in their eyes (well, some of them) who lovingly show you a title you might like, thumbing through the pages as they talk. Okay, I’m getting carried away here.

BUT, since we live on this island, and the ferries don’t run 24/7, and it costs $16 (and a bunch of time) every time we cross over to the mainland (no bookstores here), I do order for Amazon.com. Two-faced of me, huh.

I love online shopping, too. That Amazon app on my iPhone is not lonely. There are times when, like you, I want to be around other book-loving humans.

That goes for computer stuff, too. I can get whatever I want delivered overnight from Frys.com, but there’s something about chatting with other Apple store geeks that still gets me out of the house.

And no, I don’t mind you pointing out how to write “c’est la vie” at all and thanks. My copy editor is on vacation. That’s secret blogger code for “too lazy to proof my copy.”

Obviously my French is terrible. This also goes back to why I was reading Le Monde in the first place. I’m improving my French and it’s part of my self-created immersion program.

I’m such a geek.

Sadly, I have not found anywhere near me that thinks like this.

My only hope is that someone manages to prove that this kind of thing sells, on a large scale, before city centres become tumbleweed ridden corridors of empty concrete.

P.S. I hope you won’t mind me pointing out that it’s written c’est la vie.