"A library is just a genteel black hole that can read"

The evidence suggests that L-space governs really good used bookstores as well. Whenever we visit Seesterperson, I wheedle a trip over to her town's bookstore, which combines the virtues of a widely varied stock, an eccentrically organized system, and a comprehensive computerized inventory: you can poke around the shelves for hours, waiting for luck or inspiration or your credit limit to strike, or you can go straight to the counter and have your prey bagged and tagged in a matter of minutes. I generally take a combination approach, bolting back to the front to ask for coordinates on anything particular that comes to mind as I stroll, collecting whatever it is (muahahaha, half-price Sapolsky books, you are mine) and then picking back up in that general area, meandering along, head turned sideways in that enquiring-Scops-owl posture so ideal for cruising the stacks. Doing this back-and-forth routine for things in the general history and sciences section has the added benefit of a quads workout, since those shelves are filed on the second floor (ground floor: sociology, children's books, comics, trade fiction in paperback; basement, hardcovers and vintage; interstitial areas, literary biographies). Should I ever go a-missing, this will be the absolute first place to check.