Unfortunately, browsing + expensive books + Amazon = major fail for brick and mortar stores.

Much as I love libraries I recognize the realities of the situation.  I'd rather they cut them the less painful way (reducing hours, closing two days a week, closing outlying small branches and consolidating the inventory) than slashing broadly.

Ah yes, the good old "greens and reds."

I'm also wondering if by "old ladies" the poster means 40-somethings.  /

I met Jane Wiedlin at a Borders in L.A.

But would a real hipster patronize Starbucks?  Corporate coffee and all that.  Unless he was being doubly ironic.

Libraries are now offering ebooks.  I don't know exactly how it works copyright-wise, but I think they disappear from your e-reader on the due date.

"I need a repair manual for my Pinto … oh, and can I borrow your fire extinguisher?  Right now?"

"It's a crime book … it has a lot of black and red on the cover … and a gun or knife …"

Well, an idiotic customer meeting an idiotic clerk sort of cancel each other out and they just stare at each other blankly.  It's when only one of the parties is an idiot that problems arise.

"Shake-who? Shake-speer?"

That's a Picard facepalm moment if there ever was one.

I'm lovin' it.

I think I'm going to run right out tomorrow and get me one of those thousands of open positions in academia.  Oh wait.  Back to Wal-Mart I guess.

They could just direct him to the movie version starring Roddy McDowell.

Was the clerk being hipsterly ironic?  Bookstore clerks are notorious for that.

Only if it's CancerAIDS.

There was a long argument about different e-readers on Wired recently and it seems the Nook is the fan favorite.  It's also clear that e-ink readers like the Kindle and Nook are preferable to lcd tablets.

Another good thing about the library is that it forces me to actually read the books I take out because of the deadline.  When I buy books I tend to put them all in a pile and forget about them, and before you know it I've got six boxes of unread books.

Camper Van Beethoven was pretty high-falutin'.