Two Unrelated Questions (not about genealogy)

[walkitout]

(1) Does an upside down or inverted fleur de lis mean anything specifically related to gay culture in Quebec? (Does it mean anything in particular at all, other than that there's a clothing line that uses it as part of their logo, and it's a cross so upside down crosses mean things?)

(2) This article in the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/business/barnes-noble-taking-on-amazon-in-the-fight-of-its-life.html

Has this quote:

"Surveys indicate that only a third of the people who step into a bookstore and walk out with a book actually arrived with the specific desire to buy one."

I would love to see the "surveys" in question, even one. Because, for realz? Two thirds of the people buying books in book stores didn't intend to buy? That coffee shop in bookstore thing is apparently working _really_ well. Either that, or there is some hard core denial going on.

The article as a whole is worth reading if you want to understand how traditional publishers and others who are deeply invested in p-books think about things.

Comments

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

That figure doesn't seem too weird to me. I go into bookstores all the time with no particular intention of buying anything, just because I enjoy browsing and, if it's a store that's new to me, getting a sense of their stock. Once in a while I end up buying something on such a trip (though quite often it's a case of "Oh, the new [favorite author] is in already, guess I'll get that," which is a sale that would have happened at some point anyway).

and here I figured it was movie-goers

[walkitout]

And other people out shopping or eating or drinking or whatever and just happened to drop by.

I _used_ to love going to bookstores, but I don't think I ever went without an intention to buy. If I left a bookstore I was browsing in without buying, I felt ... unsatisfied.

This probably says something about me, especially since it seems there are twice as many bookbuyers like you as there are like me (at least).