Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
The best ebook store was Borders. You could drill down a category to find something quite specific. Amazon has nothing remotely resembling it. The problem is that there's no middle ground between listing best sellers (which don't interest me, ever) or getting the aforementioned two million hits.
I do miss libraries and bookstores, and card catalogues as well. They allowed for serendipity, the discovery of something of which you had never heard but which was entirely the thing, just because of propinquity or because it jumped out at you. Now, you only get what you're looking for at best and sometimes not even that.
That said, when I say I miss them, I miss the results and the fun and the joy of discovery. I wouldn't go back; the advantages of the current system outweigh the losses and by a significant factor.
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Amazon's great for finding a specific book which, to be fair, is what I want to do 95% of the time. It would be nice on occasions, though, to be able to say "What books are available on such-and-such a subject?", and that's where it falls down. One really has to use other resources to answer that question, and then, having obtained a recommendation, find the book by title or author.