I would go even further : your description of the bookseller is the same as the one I would do. Focus is on money and on the appearance of being a cultural pers

I would go even further : your description of the bookseller is the same as the one I would do. Focus is on money and on the appearance of being a cultural persona, even if a bookseller does not read more than most of their clients. To be fair, they must focus on money as the book business relies on very thin margins (no pun intended). They can give advices based on what they have read, but I completely disbelieve now that their opinion on any book has more value than anyone else. Moreover, I trust much more any author or any publisher on their blogs than a bookseller in front of me when they give opinions on books. I have seen more than once booksellers lying about a book to avoid ordering it for a customer (because it costs them money and the returns are not high enough). I don't believe also that it is only Amazon that crashed the bookshops and led to the disappearance of the bookseller as a cultural anchor point for communities. Those who were really literate and honest had more capabilities to survive and some are still there today, but those who were just posing as cultural figures are gone now. To sum up, bookshops are businesses and their main activity is to make money. If I want a cultural advice, theirs is still interesting but very low in my rankings.