I was expecting to be a minority of one here, and am surprised to find myself in such good company. My local bookstore was nothing special growing up, and rarely had much I wanted (fortunately, there was an excellent library 2 blocks away - we mostly just didn't buy books). And this was in a bookish city, that at one time had a whole street of bookstores. (Christopher Morley's book about Philadelphia and ASW Rosenbach's autobiography made me nostalgic for the city that was thereforty-some years before I was born.)I've had wonderful experiences with independent used-book stores since, and there's an excellent one in my old neighborhood (Changing Hands) that sells new as well as used and has lots of author appearances, but I never have met a new-book indie I was all that impressed with. The first time I walked into a Borders I thought I'd gone to heaven. And it wasn't just books; since getting interested in folkie music in college, I'd had a horrible time finding albums by people I liked, and Borders had a whole folk music section.

And now I can surf Amazon and find music by people like Archie Fisher or Alex Bevan (folk musicians so obscure even other LJ folkies haven't mentioend them) and I can buy books by not only obscure people but also the real people I "know" on LJ. I'm not convinced this hurts the publishing market; I suspect that Amazon, by virtue of volume, can afford to stock books a local retailer couldn't, because only one person in a town might buy that book, but Amazon sells to a much wider range.

Which is not to say it doesn't have a dark side, too; one thing I worry about is that in Amazon's drive to sell every possible sort of product, they'll lose the focus on books that made me appreciate them so. Ever try to buy clothing there? The search engine is horrible for that - but I can find any book or CD I want in just a few clicks. I hopep that last part never changes, and as far as I'm concerned they can leave the other products to someone else.