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I was in the B&N flagship store in Manhattan after Christmas. I saw a book I wanted, checked the price on my Kindle, and had the ebook before I left the store. Felt a bit guilty.
I was the assistant manager of a large independent bookstore when I was younger, in the days before B&N and others destroyed the independents. B&N opened a store around the corner from our bookstore and slowly bled us to death with big discounts on best sellers. A couple of months after we closed, so did they.
I sometimes imagine that I miss browsing books in bookstores, but I can do a quick search of recent reviews of books, or search the longlists of major literary awards and get more information than I could get browsing the shelves of most bookstores. The thing I really miss is knowledgeable personnel in bookstores -- people you can ask for advice about recent books.
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