Get thee to an Amazonbooks store and the moment you step across the hearth, your soul will flee your body like a lesbian atheist flees from a Trump Rally in Alabama. You can almost watch it run out of the mall like those cut outs when Bugs Bunny flees a room.
Amazon Books gives a whole new meaning to soulless - and it is not a good meaning. It is doubly painful since Amazon is the corporate monolith that ran bookstores out of town.
Don't get me wrong, I love Amazon. Amazon has allowed me to write, enjoy it and have others enjoy some of it. Amazon is a treasure on many levels. AND I am an Amazon Prime member, I love free shipping and Mrs. Maisel.
But a bookstore built on an algorithm of what sells best is devoid of fun, whimsy and discovery. Part of the beauty of a bookstore, for those who love to read, is discovery. Finding what new stories are on the tables or shelves that the employees love. Wandering the stacks to find a new book by your favorite author and debating if you wait until it is in paperback or just buy it now. (I can't read hardbacks in the tub, and that is my special happy place.)
There is no discovery in the Amazonbooks store. It's where you go to buy a present for someone you don't know well enough to buy a candle for. "Oh, I hear little Johnny likes Science Fiction. Here are the top 10 science fiction books."
Oh well. This will all change when I open my own book store in Montenegro....