Ann Patchett shares..........

[rapa]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/theres-a-book-i-want-you-to-...

[Mandy Muffin]

Book store owners used to be a great source for suggestions on books.  I used a neighborhood store called Linda's Books for years and most of the fun of shopping there was talking to Linda about what people were reading.  But it is getting less and less as more people use E-Books.  In a recent biography of Jeff Bezos and Amazon booksellers, one story is that when he let people write reviews of books, he published the bad ones.  According to the story, someone from Barnes and Noble confronted him and asked why he would ever publish a bad review when he was trying to sell books.  He retorted that he was selling customer service and not just books.  I couldn't imagine anything more customer friendly than a bookstore owner telling  you that a particular books is a real stinker, while you are checking it out.