To the Editor:
What better way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon during a spring that is far too delayed for my liking than browsing in a bookstore — Edgartown Books, to be exact? The wonderful feature of both Edgartown Books and Bunch of Grapes is their intimacy (“Books and their bibliophiles,” May 16), and the personal attention that you get only with small, privately owned bookstores. Yes, I am an Amazon frequent flier — guilty as charged. However, ordering a book on Amazon will never replace the satisfaction of gazing at the dust jackets on the shelves of a bookstore, and then leafing through the titles that catch your interest.
Recently, I started to use a Kindle, a concession to my wife’s plea to limit my book clutter throughout our house. A Kindle may reduce my clutter, but it will never replace the delight of wandering through a bookstore and seeing what you discover. Not too long ago, there were multiple bookstores in Boston and Cambridge; now only a precious few remain. All of us who are bibliophiles should appreciate another Vineyard resource — our bookstores!
Kevin R. Loughlin
Edgartown
