I usually lurk on this list -- but as a writer, and an
independent-bookstore employee, I'd like to point out that there is a
bigger problem lurking behind the fact that the big chains are gobbling up
small independent booksellers. That is, that the buyers for the big chains
are weilding undue influence on publishers -- do we really want three or
four buyers around the country deciding what gets published? We'll wind up
in a world with no literary fiction at all ... just celebrity memoirs and
movie-tie-ins. So, by supporting your local independent bookstore, you are
also supporting free speech.
--Charlotte
