Signs of life

NPR has a surprisingly encouraging article up about the current state of independent bookstores. Despite the popularity of e-books, the holiday season apparently guarantees the sale of a lot of expensive coffee-table-style hardcovers, which is great news for indie bookshops. Cookbooks are doing exceptionally well this season, too—including $60 tomes that "people aren't particularly cooking out of", but buy in order "to have the book, to show off the book, to enjoy the book, to be enraptured by the book"... even if they're not actually going to make any of the recipes. And after shelling out more than fifty dollars for the book itself, who can afford to?