[rkomar]

With shelf space being limited, book stores tend to only stock what they think they can sell. There will be books they aren't sure about, but they tend to only take one or two copies and don't restock them if they don't sell. So, you know your chances of getting something utterly bad is lower in a book store than if you are looking at a catalog of all available books. I think that's what the OP is asking for, some interface that limits offered ebooks in a similar way to what a physical bookstore does. Nostalgia, smell, aversion to technology,... are all red herrings here.