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Hi Barry, here's my take. I love the smell of books, and I love booksellers too. I'm afraid, however, that even the Barnes & Nobles are not long for this world as long as people would rather buy cheap stuff at Walmart or find cheaper stuff on the Internet.
The other problem with bookstores is that they're built upon the backs of undercompensated authors. Authors write books, which (if they're able to get traditionally published) get sold in quantities to bookstores that can never sell through, and then the books are returned to the publisher for a full refund. The era of the brick and mortar superstore is coming to an end. The only way for the book store biz to survive in the long run is to inventory fewer books in their stores and instead start selling print on demand books which will offer unlimited selection and the convenience of print for those who still prefer it. We'll also start seeing traditional bookstores dispensing ebooks via on-site kiosks.
I think it's important to support the nascent ebook industry, because in the long run ebooks will be a democratizing force for both consumers of books and the creators of books (authors).
I will bet in your very community, you have hundreds if not thousands of aspiring authors who would love to publish their dream book and have it be discovered by a worldwide audience. Unfortunately, the traditional print publishing industry isn't much different than an invitation-only country club. Its books are too expensive for a worldwide audience; they capture the voices of only a narrow sliver of the author community; most of its books lose money; and most books go out of print shortly after publishing. I'm a huge supporter of self-published print books, but even they have the physical challenge of traversing geographic boundaries and the economic challenge of expense.
With ebooks, anyone anywhere with a computer can publish one and make it instantly available to a worldwide audience. The only gatekeeper is the quality of the author's work. It's then up to the community of readers to determine what's worth reading and what's not.
I say buy the Kindle (or the iPhone, or whatever device you prefer), and then buy ebooks for it. Amazon isn't the only source of ebooks for the Kindle, by the way. Many independent online bookstores are sprouting up all over the web supporting both mainstream and indie authors.
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