Germany has extremely high quality bookstores and they're located even in small towns. If a book is not available, it will be by the following morning. Bookstore personnel are trained for 2-3 years here, you can't just walk in and get a job over the summer. Germans (and French, for that matter) read extensively and insist on good book stores. Chain stores like Barnes and Noble, Waldens, etc aren't really known here......the emphasis is on individually owned shops, albeit some are gigantic. Hugendubel is a branch with several stores, but nothing in the manner of Barnes and Noble. So, I love going to book stores in person, smelling the the books, holding them in my hand, conversing with them, reveling in the colors and design of the covers. A sensual experience. And then I feel the need to adopt one or two and give them a proper new home.
But, if I need something more, uh, mundane, I'll go for Amazon.

I tend to like browsing in bookstores because most of the time, I don't know what I want to read until I see it. However, if there is a book that I know I want and it's not in the store, I'll buy it online.

(I'm currently trying bookmooch but I have a feeling that I'll be giving more than getting books.)

Holding a book in my hands is to a story as phlogiston is to fire. There's something about the passive entertainment power in each aisle of a bookstore that captivates me. I always have the lurking feeling that the next addictive book is hidden somewhere on the shelves in front of me. Shopping online doesn't give the same feeling, but it is convenient, and in the end the actual book is in my hands anyways. I prefer to shop online when I already know what I want, and I prefer to go to a bookstore for something entirely different; the need to browse. It's also a matter of pride that I can walk down some aisles and have read 90% of the books in them.

For Free Thinkers you guys sure are stuck in the last millenium and you better get ready for the revolution because it is coming. The day of the brick and mortar bookstore is numbered.

Want a book now? without leaving your house? Go online, buy it and down load it.
Do you know why B&M stores can give those 10, 20, 30 per cent discounts on books?
Because the mark the books up 55%

You right a book and get it published and want it sold in a B&M store? Well you're squeezed between the printing cost and the retail price, which the consumer is willing to pay, and the Bookstore who wants 55% of the Retail price.

We all love physical books, but we are going to have to adjust our thinking. The digital revolution is coming and your local bookstore is likely going the way of Blockbuster.

I have no idea how many books I own. I lost count at 1200. I have them in every room in the house and in closets. I don't sell them because they are like my children. But like children they are a pain. They take up room and are hard to travel with. When I go on a trip I have to decide which one or two to take and end up regretting the choice later. How would you like to have your whole library on a device the size of a notebook?

For Free Thinkers you guys sure are stuck in the last millenium

If you don't see how this is inappropriate we're going to have some real problems. Please engage in forum discussions in a more friendly tone. There was absolutely no reason to mock the freethinkers in this thread. And I'm not looking for a debate on what your words "really" meant. Be nice or or don't comment. Please. Freethought doesn't have a damn thing to do with resistance to new technology. You know this.

stahrwe wrote: We all love physical books, but we are going to have to adjust our thinking. The digital revolution is coming and your local bookstore is likely going the way of Blockbuster.

What? Rent out books?

I know what you mean and yes, books are going to be more electronic than not in the future. Probably a few years from now. However, I think this will be a slow transition. I doubt everyone is thinking "I MUST RESIST THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!" But much like the older generations are with computers, it's just going to take some time. My grandmother thought the CD rom player on her PC was a cup holder and couldn't understand why her coffee wasn't fitting into them right. But now, she's a master at using her PC.

It's just going to take adjustment to this and please don't be condescending.

For Free Thinkers you guys sure are stuck in the last millenium and you better get ready for the revolution because it is coming. The day of the brick and mortar bookstore is numbered.

Odd for a Restricted Thinker to say such a thing, especially considering you're stuck believing a fairy tale created by bronze age barbarians. But what you speak is true, the part about the digital revolution coming. Although I'm fairly sure not only is it coming, but we're in the middle of it. For example, I just saw this newfangled contraption called a Kindle. Reading a book without paper, it's blasphemy.

Um.. the last millenium was 10 years ago; you can't really be "stuck" in it, there's so much that changed.. Weird. Especially since anyone older than 10 was born then.

I am a full fledged shopaholic and there is nothing like going to a bookstore, even if the bank will only allow me to look, walking through the new releases, the classics, the sci-fi, and whatever section that floats my boat that day. To be able to make me a pile of random books and find a comfy chair and spend hours at a time debating which lucky story will come home with me is ultimate satisfaction.

On occasion I have bought books online hen my decision already made and I can't get it in a bookstore.

I'm excited about the new wave of electronic readers and sad at the same time. I'm excited because of the cost of hardback books are overly outrageous. I'm sad because I don't know how I will get the same satisfaction in reading a book because of the loss of the process of choosing that one good book.

stahrwe wrote:For Free Thinkers you guys sure are stuck in the last millenium

Uh, stahrwe, if we are stuck in the last millenium, why is it we are communicating via this forum? I doubt you can accuse us of being pusillanimous concerning technology as we simply wouldn't be online then, would we?