The big bookstore is an anachronism. It costs too much for the overhead and it will never have the selection that an online store has. I think about the books that I have bought in the past year and I do not think that most of them would even be available at a Borders or Barnes & Noble. Setting aside for a moment the French- and German-language books that I've bought (and which make up the bulk of recent purchases), I am pretty sure that The Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia and a book about the Battle of Blenheim in the War of the Spanish Succession would not be in my local bookstore. In fact, the only book I can find that amazon says I've bought in the past six months that WOULD be available is "Obama's Wars" by Bob Woodward (the last book I will buy for some time written by a journalist - see my review of how poorly it was written). I knew ahead of time I was buying mass-produced crap. I just didn't know how crappy it would be.

As I see it, the ideal situation is for small, specialized bookstores to join up with online sellers (like the amazon marketplace). The small bookstores are still good because the people who buy the books know their audience and can recommend things, and the customers trust the recommendations being made. I can think of a few stores that I still enjoy walking into randomly to see what they have. Aside from that, it's amazon.com. Or amazon.fr. Or amazon.de (I just ordered two books from that one yesterday).