> Chain bookstores exist to make a profit and selling quality books is
> not a high priority. Just look at the layout of these bookstores. Are
> the "Current Events" books near the front registers? The history
> section? Nope, corporate bookstores make their money from selling
> stuff like gift books and coffee. Sure, they make money from selling
> books, but the best way to understand a corporate bookstore is to know
> about the old criticism of them as using "books as wallpaper."
Depends on where they are. In a city like Philly, you can find serious political books and zines (and not-so-serious ones) in prominent locations in all the B&Ns and Borders (though the latters' stock of Marxian etc. classics is very poor -- thank the Weltgeist for marxists.org), and there are also a number of independent left, or quasi-left bookstores, where, as you say, you can get a lot more of the more specialized, hard-rock (as it were) left literature.
That's one reason I live here. I don't want to live way out in the backwoods where a decent culture -- bookstores, music, serious films, theater, etc. -- isn't easily available. Call me a snob. I honor and respect missionaries who want to bring left reading material to the more deprived areas of the country, but I don't feel up to that task myself.
And, BTW, no one has mentioned on-line booksellers, which are accessible from anywhere that has telephones, of course. Is it politically incorrect to patronize them, especially since a lot of mentions of left books on left internet sites (not usually this one) include links to one such bookseller especially, whose name begins with "A"?
> Or how about that nice little store across the street from the Univ.
> of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia?
House of Our Own. Still there, AFAIK -- unfortunately I haven't been there for a while, but since you reminded me, I'll drop by when I get a chance.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, 'You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing.' -- Sir Arnold Bax