Ok, so Amazon gets major kudos for their Red Cross fund drive. And true, they have been able to find books for me that independent bookstores have not, including german-language books and oh, hey, that book of russian motion verbs. But otherwise they suck.
I ordered a book from Powell's City of Books in Portland, Oregon, and it showed up very promptly.
I have resolved never to use evil Amazon for books again. evil, evil, evil Amazon. I specifically set my preferences to receive only email, not snail mail, and asked not to be sent stupid emailed 'recommendations.' So what did I get yesterday, but a fat flyer in the mail, plus an email telling me what else to buy! argh. Their recommendations are sooo lame, they should be ashamed of themselves. I'm going to run out and buy Mike Daisey's book now.
Powell's has used books, and their partner music store is Djangos, a music and video store I know nothing about (but look! here you can find a copy of the Eurythmic's Savage for $7.99!), to fulfill all your entertainment needs. whoopee!
The book I bought is another story entirely. Someone at work had a copy, and I just immediately wanted my own. It's basically photos of the Berlin Wall and people around it during the fall of '89, while they were started to dismantle it. The photos are great. The quotes that accompany the photos are... well, they range from Carl Sandburg to various presidents of the US, and from Bob Dylan to Martin Luther King, Jr. Some are great, while some... not so great. But the book induced a really good cry last night, something I've needed to do for a while now; something about the way these people held the hammers they slammed into the wall. kids, older people-- can you imagine? I mean, what a metaphor. (sorry, I feel just a little emotional these days.) not that bringing down the wall solved everyone's problems by a long shot, but still-- to be able to literally help smash the thing that has limited your freedom-- how fucking great is that. most of us only do battle in our heads.

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.