One extreme to another

Two different takes on the state of the independent book store with David Usborne in The Independent reporting from New York that although one bookshop has closed down one of his favourite independent bookshops has stayed open and judging on that basic barometer he feels things are okay in the state of Indie bookseller land.

But, at the other extreme and this story is bizarre a bookseller in Kansas who literally could not give books away has resorted to burning them.His burning was a protest at what the owner of Prospero's Books Tom Wayne believes is a lack of support for the printed word. The owners of the book store have found sales figures falling and similar bookshops closing and now the only option they feel thay have left is to burn their stocks.

Having gone onto the store website it seems they might be a way to save some of the stock by buying titles for a dollar. It seems a tragedy to let them burn so maybe I'll get ordering...