>>...reading a new novel every few days. He never buys them.<<
LOL! You just described my dad in the broke, bummy days of his youth (minus the fat ass). All you have to do is mention a book that’s more than 30 years old and he almost never fails to say, “I read that in a bookstore.” Well, at least he was reading and not off smoking pot somewhere.
This is a well dressed middle aged guy who looks like he could afford more books than I can.
[but there are some really scroungy characters loafing around, reading “graphic novels”]
Eh, hits too close to home.
Cheap entertainment.
That said, most stores won’t carry the books that I really want, and you have to order them all. That is what is killing them, when I can order them from Amazon, and save money.
What’s the point of having an actual bricks and mortar store, when you don’t have the books?