h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Has anybody ever had the feeling that books have a life of their own? Every time you turn your back on them, they multiply!
I'd have to admit now I'm an old-fashioned book addict. I love the smell of books, I love the feel of books, I love the sound they make when they hit a wall. And great though online reading and writing is, it's a lot more difficult to sniff a computer, throw it at someone or prop it up against a teacup than it is to do the same things with a book.
I also love shopping for books - those completely aimless, afternoon-long expedition down all the aisles of a well-sorted bookshop, preferably with a café attached so that you can flop down in front of a cuppa and a muffin at the end of a perfect browsing day and watch the rain outside over a pile of just-bought books.... Hodges&Figgis in Dublin springs to mind, as well as the countless other cosy, friendly bookshops on the planet that make life in any city so much more comfortable.
Until not so long ago, this town had one of them. Located in a beautiful old building right down one of the little lanes of the city centre, the place had it all: three floors of books in every size, shape and fragrance known to man, and pretty much on every subject as well. A coffee bar with cream-cheese bagles. A map and geography department whose biggest attraction was the little globe that lights up when someone goes past it. A lovely spiral staircase and no elevator. And even a bathroom down a few more winding stairs in a prefectly spooky basement. You could spend whole Saturdays in there, if you're the kind of daft get who enjoys that sort of thing. But alas, sic transit gloria mundi - the thing has moved. To the new shopping centre by the railway station. It now occupies a small space at the top of the (ugly) long monster that bills itself the best shopping centre in town. Gone are the stairs, the coffee shop and the creepy bahroom. Gone are the endless shelves of books. They are now transformed into little islands in a sea of neon-blue carpet. Tough. The new shop has, at best, all the appeal and atmosphere of a W.H. Smith in an airport - and yes, I think W.H. Smith's in airports are very important and useful places, they've saved me from dying of boredom quite a few times - but for a good long expedition into the world of books, they're just not the right environment now.
So what to do? Thankfully, we have a second bookshop in this town. And the people there seem to be catching on to what a good bookshop should be like. They've already done away with the elevator and most of the little islands in the sea of neon-blue carpet. Just wait until we have a coffee shop....

don't hold back with your suggestions to them - usually people are thankful for it and try to offer what you ask for.