I use the library a lot, but buy at the bookstore, too. They will order anything I ask. This one also has good coffee, and live music on the weekends. This place has been around for several years. I love the place, and I am glad that their business is doing well.

There is another small bookstore in a town north of me that I visit a couple of times a year. I am happy to spend money there, too, as long as I can afford it.

We had a used book and record store in the eighties. It was a great experience. Unfortunately after a few years we had learned that we should not own our own business. Ever. People did like it, though. We don't really have a local bookstore right now. Everything has pretty much closed in our immediate area.

I live in DC so chain bookstores never really took hold here...Kramerbooks, Politics and Prose and even the small book section at Poets and Busboys has been kicking Barnes and Noble's ass all along. Our small indie used bookstores such as Kultura and Idle Time more than hold their own. The same is true in NYC and other large cities.

Realistically though, outside of the major cities, I suspect the viability of the bookstore is dependent on someone coming up with a new business model: books+. Coffeehouse and books is a solid, if not novel, approach. I used to see a lot of books, music, DVDs and video games stores but all the ones I know of dumped books from that model. I've always thought it'd be cool to do books and public house...call it "The Library Bar". Ideally, books+ is a business model that combines books with another business that also encourages people to browse and hang-out.

Alternately, I've suggested that my local library open an in-the-building coffeehouse but they have this pesky "No food or beverages in the library" policy they cling to...I think if they opened a coffeehouse, the revenues would make the library self-sustaining in perpetuity and we could stop having to fight Montgomery County for budget.

they remind me of Meg Ryan's bookstore in that movie...You've got mail. Sad that her store couldn't compete with the big new one around teh corner. Now the big brick and mortar ones are in trouble because of online shopping and ebooks.