On The Media, one of my favourite podcasts, has a great episode this week on the past, present and future of books, including ebooks and online bookstores. It got me thinking of a recent book buying experience I’d had - I was looking for something on learning to play the piano, and had spent about an hour online at the usual suspects without any success. Online reviews, looking inside books at Amazon, and so on, took me no closer to my objective; I simply couldn’t get a reliable impression from any online resource. So I went to my neighbourhood Chapters, and had two great choices in my hands within minutes. Hmmm.