And another thing...

Do you get a smile when you shop on Amazon? Or to look at it the other way up, does your local bookseller try to press on you the tempting news that 'people who bought that book also bought these other ten?' (Change bookseller if they do!) Or, as Robert Crampton - go Red Bob! - put it in his Beta Male column in the Times magazine recently, "customers who viewed this also viewed that, if you like Ecstasy you may well like crack cocaine... Some people might find these suggestions helpful. I don't."

No, the local bookseller never does the hard sell. He does smile, though, in a way that says, I'm glad you stopped by. And guess what? He can also give you directions to Roundwood Park on a hot April afternoon. So you don't need to look it up on your iPhone or nuffink.