Bookstores Offer 'Hope in the Form of a Book'

Shelf Awareness

"In the wake of Internet competition, bookstores have been feeling like publisher showcases and promoting ourselves as literary curators. But our true value may be as basic as this: often people come to us simply to talk to another human being. In a world that is more and more automated, computerized, Web-based, sometimes, someone just wants to tell their story to another human being, feel like someone heard them, and take away hope that things will change--hope in the form of a book."

--Allison Hill, president & COO of Vroman's Bookstore and Book Soup, Los Angeles, Calif., in the Huffington Post