And I hear Borders UK is under fire, which would be tragic as it’s one of the few places you can get US magazines.

In San Francisco: City Lights! Possibly the best collection of fiction in translation I have ever seen, among other things, although maybe not oriented enough towards nonfiction for this crowd.

The Seminary and Labyrinths are indeed both great as well.

Finally, for what it’s worth: in 2002, I briefly worked at a used bookstore which listed its inventory on both Amazon and ABE. Amazon took a bigger commission and gave a smaller shipping allowance than ABE, but the store did not sell significantly more books via Amazon than via ABE, surprising as that may sound. Of course, the situation may have changed.

(Confession time: I once went to a conference specifically because they advertised “a trip to Powell’s!” as one of the extras. My money and my wallet were extensively parted.)

To actually be slightly on-topic, while I would prefer a good independent bookstore (yay Shaman Drum!), living in Pittsburgh has given me a new appreciation for the big chains; our new neighborhood Borders didn’t squeeze out existing stores, because there was nothing for it to squeeze…

Ben Alpers, did you know about the Salman Rushdie Memorial Hole in the ceiling above the information desk at Cody’s on Telegraph?

Now that I’ve moved away, I miss Borderlands and all the little used bookshops on Valencia in San Francisco, and I miss Black Oak and The Other Change of Hobbit and Moe’s Books in Berkeley.

When I was working the info desk at Cody’s, we had a multiple-page printed-out spreadsheet by the telephone, filled with names, phone numbers, and addresses of other bookshops in the Bay Area. “Well, we don’t carry that magazine, but you might try DeLauer’s, the newsstand in Oakland.” We referred people to Kepler’s on the Peninsula, Christian bookstores for miles around, an audiobook store (“Talking Book World”?) on University Avenue, the list goes on and on. I hate to think of that spreadsheet now, getting smaller, lines crossed off in ballpoint as local bookshops close.

for those of us who grew up in rural/semi-rural areas, large chain bookstores were a godsend. i was around fourteen when a barnes/noble opened in carbondale, IL - before then, the only bookstores were a waldenbooks in the mall (useless), university textbook stores (no real selection of actual books), and a few very hit-or-miss used book stores.

b&n changed nothing in the landscape, really: the used bookstores are still there, the textbook stores never will die (though i think follett’s now operates the bookstore in the student center), and even waldenbooks gamely clings to existence.

Mind you I work there.