According to an article posted May 15, 2006 in Slate Magazine, the independent bookstore is going the way of 8-track tapes, vinyl records and polio. I hope not! Anyway, here's a link to the article. In it, Tyler Cowen remarks on Laura J. Miller's book Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Cowen claims Miller "wishes to make the bookstore into a political arena." But, as Cowen points out, we have the internet now and with that we have on-demand publishing, blogs, reader reviews at sites such as Amazon, and of course eBay. Non-partisan freedom of speech is alive and well because so many people have access to the internet and create a blog and more.