Bookstore bounceback?

A number of years ago I wrote what was the latest in a depressing series of features about declining numbers among independent bookstores -- you know, the usual handwringing, the fall of the little guy, kids losing all interest in print-related objects, the drop in ABA membership from more than 4,000 to fewer than 2,000 -- when I learned that actually, we've always lost bookstores at a depressing rate.

What we haven't been getting is replacements, people who want to own or run such a thin-profit-margin endeavor.

Now, all of a sudden, there's been a notable uptick in new bookstores, says Teresa Mendez in the Christian Science Monitor.