Henry Ward Beecher said it best: "Where is human nature so weak as in a bookstore?" This is so true for me, I never come out of a bookstore without at least one book! Seems they've been around for a long time and a delightful history of that may be found in The Bookshop: a History of the American Bookstore, by Evan Friss. Benjamin Franklin had one! There are small stores, that spill out onto the city street, huge mega-stores, and quirky independent stores (some that cater to just one subject). At one time some of the fancier stores such as the Bon Marche included one. Their demise has been predicted several times due to tv, the internet, electronic books (even radio at one point), and yet ... they are still around, thankfully. This was a fascinating, enjoyable, hard to put down read. :-)

Reading Hermit With Dog