About what kind of bookstore are we talking? I'm from germany, so I don't know, if the situation is alike in the US or in other countries.
There is this picture in our head, of a nice local bookstore, the owner stands in his store and he and all his employees love books. If we ask for a recommendation, we get asked questions and maybe we get into a conversation about books.
But apart from some niche stores, this stores where rare some time ago and now nearly extinct. And it was not the e-Book or Amazon, but big bookstore-chains who killed these stores. It is ironic, that now these corporations blame Amazon.
Getting informations and recommendations about books is in my opinion easier and better through the internet. And many people here do not make money by recommending a book
Oh, and some statements in the original quote are a little bit strange.
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the sad fact is that I wouldn't be sitting in a bookshop ready to sign your Kindle when a new book came out.
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Okay, then why not sit in somewhere else? In a cafe, a meeting hall, a convention etc? Why not making Q&A with reddit? Etc.
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So if, like me, you want to see books flourishing in all their forms, it's vital to support the booksellers who continue to be the mainstay of the publishing business.
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So, if paperbooks are the mainstay, why should we even need to support bookstores? Shouldn't we help the underdog? And even stating that paper books are "the mainstay" is questionable. And is it important for the number of books selled and read, where they are bought?
This emotional "arguing" is a little bit annoying. To say it with the Simpsons: "Think of the children!"