young@uci-icse.ARPA (Michal Young) (02/28/85)
Pournelle suggested banging the ears of chain bookstores to carry better computer books. He specifically suggested NOT buying technical books from small, independent bookstores. In my personal experience, it is the small (not necessarily technically-oriented) bookstores that attempt to sort useful books from drivel, perhaps because they can't afford to cram their limited shelf space with junk. The rising noise to signal ratio in books is not limited to technical literature, although it is most pronounced in computer books. It seems to me a more effective policy to patronize the independent bookstore which actually pays attention to the books it stocks, and to pay a few dollars more to buy the generally available books from the independent rather than from the chain, to increase the odds that the harder to find book will be there on the shelf when I need it. --Michal Young young@uci