Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2012 10:18:35 -0400 From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us> To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: [WSFA] The French Still Flock to Bookstores Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> Excerpt: The French, as usual, insist on being different. As independent bookstores crash and burn in the United States and Britain, the book market in France is doing just fine. France boasts 2,500 bookstores, and for every neighborhood bookstore that closes, another seems to open. From 2003 to 2011 book sales in France increased by 6.5 percent. <...> There are also government-financed institutions that offer grants and interest-free loans to would-be bookstore owners. --- end excerpt --- <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/books/french-bookstores-are-still-prospering.html> -- "Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object" - Abraham Lincoln