This may seem odd, but I feel a personal obligation to help used bookstores stay in business. Take the mom-and-pop store near my home. It has an excellent selection and is kept clean and well-organized. The prices are reasonable and the people are pleasant. It is a rare week when I don't visit and the trips are a form of therapy. In addition to tracking down books by familiar authors, I also like to give new ones a try. It can be fun to read far outside the usual range and see if something clicks.
Since the used bookstores don't charge the ridiculous prices that today's publishers like to slap on new books, it is easier to experiment and finding shelves filled with books by unknown writers who are - truth be known - extremely good is an exercise in humility.
What more could you ask from a simple visit to a store?
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Michael
Me, too. Last year I began to get rid of several piles of books that have been gathering dust for years. (The Internet has almost eliminated my urge to have books.) So I took a stack of boxes of books to the local second-hand book store and gave it to him. All I asked of him was the loan of a current best-seller, and when I finished reading it I gave that one back to him as well so he could sell it.
As a retired cafeteria manager I have deep sympathy for any business model that is headed for the dust bin of history. I don't believe books will ever go out of fashion, but second-hand book stores are the cafeterias of that segment of the marketplace. We were displaced by all-you-can-eat buffets, and book stores now have to compete with applications that can print, bind and deliver a single book from a website (not to mention e-books).
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