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Comment by PopeDotNinja | Hacker News Reader

Crazy idea in alternate universe... Turn all Barnes & Nobles into libraries.

Or you could just go to your local library in this universe. They still exist.

Actual idea: Treat your local bookstore like a library. They don't care if you read their books as long as you stay in store and are respectful. Plus they have actual up to date selection with no waiting list for new releases. And spending money at the cafe is probably higher margin for them anyway.

That used to be more of a thing in the 1990s. The big chains used to have lots of seating, even sofas, and as a fast reader who can read a typical 300 page book in a couple of hours, I used to spend most of my weekends reading books for free in big bookstores. They've wised up. There isn't a lot of seating these days.

Ya, on my reading for english classes I'd do that for my reading assignments. For my engineering and programming classes, i'd take copious notes. It was entirely wonderful. I'd stay at the store from open till close and enjoy all those hours.

Guess our bookstore is just behind the times then, because ours has a really big cafe with nice chairs and tables and such. I've read 200+ books there in the past decade.

Edit: I guess I should also mention that ours was a Borders and then after they went out of business it reopened as a Books-A-Million maybe a year later. I think it was something else before it was Borders, but that was before my time.

I've never seen a library in a mall with the latest & greatest books. That'd be sweet!

The largest book store chain in Saint Petersburg just has cafes inside some of the stores, where you can sit with the books.

The selection is too poor.

Which become internet kiosks for the homeless.

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