Quote:
Originally Posted by wildhoney66
bookstores aren't going to have everything ... no store does i don't think
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That - to have physical copies of all publications in a store - is impossible. That was never meant, because that would be an unrealistic demand. If the the Library of Congress in Washington has
25 million books, and that is not "all of them", how can city stores even approach that?
The point is to
strive for completeness - the vastest majority of shops have too poor a collection. A million is unhoped for, but ten thousand is acceptable only on a clever selection - the (almost) complete work from one or two publishers, or the maniacal coverage of one or two topics etc. Not ten thousand as in "You are looking for Orwell, sorry I do not have it but I can sell you Huxley" (and I have witnessed much worse than that. I have actually witnessed a «I would like to buy a copy of the I-Ching». The clerk turns to me and goes «And to think I have so many good cook books, why did that customer need to be so stiff on her interests...». He was apparently serious on the idea that people "come and pick" - wandering "customers" without a direction which are there to be attracted by random objects).