Ann Patchett on opening her own book shop.

Books  From The Atlantic.  Author Ann Patchett watched both of the bookshops in Nashville close due to pressures from elsewhere in the country despite both of the local stores apparently being profitable.  Against the perceived wisdom of the ninety-nine percent of the media which suggested that it's dying trade, Patchett has see that there is still a gap in the market and has decided to open her own independent spot:

"My act was on the road, and with every performance, I tweaked the script, hammering out the details as I proclaimed them to strangers: All things happen in a cycle, I explained—the little bookstore had succeeded and grown into a bigger bookstore. Seeing the potential for profit, the superstore chains rose up and crushed the independents, then Amazon rose up and crushed the superstore chains. Now that we could order any book at any hour without having to leave the screen in front of us, we realized what we had lost: the community center, the human interaction, the recommendation of a smart reader rather than a computer algorithm telling us what other shoppers had purchased. I promised whoever was listening that from those very ashes, the small independent bookstore would rise again."

I hope she's right. Then it won't just be the technology in You've Got Mail which will look dated, it'll be the business models too.