Am 21 Aug 2004 23:05 meinte Tony Duell:
> > The real kick was, I didn't even have to buy the screwdriver. There was
> > no visible damage to the screwdriver tip from my careful work, so it
> > went back on the shelf.
> I find this mroally very wrong. I can't believe yor tool shops offer a
> free lending service for tools, I know ours don't.
> Ditto for books, actually. I have no problem with looking at books in the
> bookshop to find which one contains the information I need, but when I've
> found said book I buy it. I don't make notes in a pocket notebook so as
> not to have to buy the book (I do, of course, do that in public
> libraries, but that's what libraries are for).
Well, by now, the bookstores (at least the larger ones) hanve
even reading areas, where people take a book, sit down and read
it, without paying. Usualy cramped with people reading. Any, at
least according to their studies, it makes them selling _more_
books. and even people who go in, just to read, without buying
often end up buying it. After all, books are a kind of addictive
drug, and that's the way they give out a free fix ;)
It's like car sales over here uswualy give you a car for a full
weekend for a testdrive (ok, when it comes to cars, you should
at least give them an impression that your'e the one to buy it :)
And yes, we have public libraries (still more than 30 within the
city borders), and some 60+ neighborhood locations are served by
one of the five 'Bucherbus' - rolling libraries with some 20,000+
books, serving each location once a week. And if you don't find
what you're looking for, thell them, and next week you'll pick it
up.
Still, I think the laisse faire attitude of the book stores helps
in promoteing reading no matter if science, or parascience :)
Gruss
H.
--
VCF Europa 6.0 am 30.April und 01.Mai 2005 in Muenchen
http://www.vcfe.org/
Received on Mon Aug 23 2004 - 06:34:45 BST