About those comments on independent bookstores...

That they tend to be run by literary snobs and that they're often the place to hear self-indulgent authors drone on. (here's the post) As you might expect, I heard about it. A sampling:

From Scott Martelle:

Those types of talks do indeed happen, but it was the inclusiveness of your phrasing that galled me. As for storeowners, I've never crunched the numbers but based on my own shopping forays I suspect most indies are topic-specific store, like mystery outlets, or fantasy, and hardly reflecting the image of effete snobbery you invoked.

From Dave Kipen, who owns Libros Schmibros:

If bookstores are good but not great search engines, they remain unbeatable browsers. Their voice-recognition software -- i.e., their staff -- can learn to anticipate your wishes. If they falter, you can override them and help yourself. A bookshop's entire inventory is available for immediate download without shipping. Best of all, their user interface is so customer-friendly that plenty of people still willingly pay extra for it. Why else is Amazon trying to co-opt every retail store in America as their showroom, if not because they realize that their own online showroom is a fundamentally inferior way to introduce products to consumers?

From another reader:

What about the jobs being lost by the closing of not only independents, but many of the major chain stores? With the L.A. unemployment rate still running over 12 percent, these losses cannot be a plus for local economy. These people are educated and well-read. What are they supposed to do now?

My apologies for the broad brushes. Obviously, not all readings are exercises in self-indulgence and not all bookstores are owned by snobs. At the same time, we can all agree that the business needs a little sprucing up.