Ali, if you are anywhere near Nambour, they have what claims to be Australia's biggest second-hand book store. (And Nambour being what it is, most of the books arrive completely unread, but with grease stains from being used as axle-stands, but I digress).

Don't smoke in there, though, they'll hang you up by the toenails and pummel you with an organic carrot. So the sign says.

Sounds like fun :D!

Bookstores, like libraries, have a certain decorum, an atmosphere...like Ali said, peaceful.

Libraries, like bookstores, have had to sell out to the lowest common denominators (though I love that public libraries SERVE the public, the internet has attracted a lot of snivelling teenagers playing shooting games and shouting to each other, and some heavy breathing circus folks trying to sneak pron) in too many cases.

As our real bookstores (and libraries) go the way of the Dinah Sore (and I don't know of a mom and pop bookstore to survive in YEARS) so goes part of a semblance of class and an unspoken camaraderie among like-minded individuals.


Noticed this weekend: went to Wally World to my bank branch. There was some completely gone on some kind of drug woman jumping around the bank and hollerin' and exchanging money. On to the library, watched another woman completely gone on some kind of drug trying to get a library card (without any ID) so she could access the computers.

My guess is that 85% of the top library goers in my town did not bother to vote for the library levy in order for our library to keep providing the services they do. That levy failed, of course.

I don't really have a point, I just miss a part of the pre-internet society.

At least you can get some things through Amazon that aren't made in China.

You can't actually smell the other Amazon patrons. :greenface