[Lalaith]

Yes, Lalwende, I'm in the UK, London to be precise. I spent a lot of my childhood sitting on the floor of that bookshop that is now a Subway, reading all sorts of stuff off the shelves, it was one of the great things about little bookshops like that, you were allowed to do that...
We do still have an independent bookshop within cycling distance and I try to use it as much as I can. But the local Waterstones is of course often all too handy, not to mention Amazon.

But Hilde's point about the internet and second-hand bookshops is an excellent one. I frequently use abebooks, and I like to telephone the bookshops that come up with the volumes I want to make my purchase, rather than just order them impersonally through the net.