Off-the-shelf retail prices for books are insane. $20 for a large-format paperback of Under the Dome? Please.

Perhaps the new model for physical bookstores should be that of a private library, except without the checkout aspect. The main income comes from impulse buys of high-margin foodstuffs and misc odds-n-ends, maybe even music and gift cards, but not from a high volume of book sales.

Bookstores have a lot of advantages over public libraries. Many libraries don't have many brand-spanking-new titles, and if they do they're tied up by patrons for months. The hours for public libraries (ignoring university stacks) generally suck. Many don't have free wireless, though that's rapidly changing. Most don't have, or allow the consumption of, food.

After some time, the store could sell off heavily discounted, gently-used copies that patrons thumbed through while sipping coffee and facebooking during their lunch hour.

I understand that book stores must mark up books to make a reasonable profit (at least, that's the benefit of the doubt I give them), but the markup is simply horrible. I once shopped around online for a set of books I wanted, found the best deal (think it was Amazon or maybe Wal Mart), printed it out, and took it to the nearest Barnes and Noble. I don't recall the price difference, but it was quite a bit. I wanted the books that day, so I snagged a sales droid and proposed they give me a price half-way between their price and the one on the printout. She looked at me like I was a moron, and curtly said they couldn't do that. So I kindly wished her a good day, walked out the door, and had the books delivered to my door a few days later.

I find it hard to believe that large chains must be so inflexible in their retail pricing. However, if they don't lower their prices, I won't shed a single tear when they go under.

I've often wondered about that too. My hypothesis is that there's still a large contingent of tech-shy readers who are scared of the Internet, but who really want to get their favorite author's latest material, so they're happy to pay whatever price as long as it's similar to what they've paid in the past.