22 Aug
2004
22 Aug
'04
11:34 p.m.
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/