But even at one Christian bookstore, a landmark in New York since 1883, there is no comparison to September 11 and its aftermath.

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Once again, the story hinges on a couple who know each other for real only in the final minute in this case, Joe Fox, who owns a chain of large bookstores, and Kathleen Kelly, who runs one small bookstore and finds herself put out of business.

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Each week One More Page bookstore hosts discussion groups, young writers workshops, visiting authors, as well as wine and chocolate tastings.

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Thus it happens that during an economic bust, like the one in 1990, bookstore shelves sag with gloomy titles, such as The Age of Diminished Expectations, Econoquake and The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.

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But one day in a Burmese bookstore, he happened upon a book about a pygmy tribe called the Taron.

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Borders Group, one of the two main brick-and-mortar bookstore competitors to online-only retailer Amazon , recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

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The nearest group I could find was the Southern Vermont Beekeepers, and one evening I attended a meeting in the back of a Manchester bookstore.

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The book was published in 2006 and I assumed it would not be lining the shelves of our small, local bookstore (where I try to shop wherever possible) so I did what many parents did and one-clicked my way over and bought it at Amazon.

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