Dear Leon, if you had the time and inclination to read this, I would have sent it in an email...

Was going to write this in reply to an email I received from a seller on Amazon (which was written in response to an email I sent to him first...)

...I hardly ever went to Barnes & Noble until they relocated to the mall in my town. And even then I hardly ever bought books there, I just ate at the cafe'. Then I started seeing how pointless that was and don't do that much anymore...if I want food, Starbucks or some local establishment is enough. Window shopping makes me feel unfulfilled, which detracts from the joy of food. In a nutshell, I know firsthand that some people dont' have enough money to spend $12++ on a book and I also know that the bigname brick/mortar stores aren't for everyone. I, for one, wish I could shop at a less disposable book store, but there's only one small book store in town and they sell used books, which is cool but the selection is rather limited. They seem focused on selling the current bestsellers and the like to the folks who can't afford to buy them brand new. Current bestsellers are usually either lighthearted girly books or over-the-top thrillers. Stephen King comes out with some good stuff every now and again, but not often. I think the last good book Michael Crichton came out with was RISING SUN (1992), or maybe DISCLOSURE (1993). I haven't read DISCLOSURE, so I can't say anything too good about it, but I did enjoy the film. I'd imagine the book would be at least good. And Jodi Picoult stopped writing quality books a looooong time ago. John Grisham I'm not very familiar with. I tried reading A TIME TO KILL and the style of writing just seemed cartoonish. The rest of his books I haven't tried reading b/c the premises are boring, IMO. And ever since John Grisham became a household name, the crime drama/thriller genere has exploded with half a dozen "masters" of the genre. But I guess Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler were doing it long before Grisham and of course there's tons of no-name books, many of which curiously stand on the shelves of my local library to this day, that are written in that tradition.