Not only are there no locally-owned bookstores in my town (or the next town over which is practically my town), people come here from Vallejo to go to B&N (I think that's it) because there are no bookstores at all there. None!

We do have a comic book shop, though, and I patronise the hell out of that place.

The only reason I know those stores apart is that Borders lets you do your own computer searches while B&N makes you actually search out and talk to a human.

Not true! At least, the Barnes and Noble('s) I go to most often lets you search yourself.

On reflection, I think I add "the" more than the possessive.

Support your locally-owned bookseller!

Find me one! Seriously, in LA, it's so much easier to find an independent cinema than a bookstore.

I hate writing cheques. I want to switch to fully online bill-paying but my mother objects and I have no backbone.

Additionally, in today's 7th grade history class, a bunch of students knocked a framed newspaper article from 1964 off the wall and shattered the frame everywhere. I wanted to cry.

Find me one!

Well, my friends' store does a ton of online business plus there's Powell's.

Well, my friends' store does a ton of online business plus there's Powell's.

We have a huge one here, Chester County Books & Music, and when I did a blog post about books the other day, I included links from them instead of Amazon.

When I worked at Penney's a lot of people would think they were in The Bon Ton. I did almost lose it once when a little old lady said, "What do you mean, I'm not in The Bon Bon?!?!"

I blame the McDonald's conglomerate for that, actually. And Starbucks, I guess, even though it isn't possessive.

I blame Truman Capote.

Have you tried indiebound.org, ita? [link]

We have a huge one here, Chester County Books & Music

I'll have to check that out sometime when I'm up in the area. AND ALSO MEET YOU, AMY!