WRITING THE BOOK ON VIRTUAL BUSINESS

'Earth's largest bookstore', as its proprietors term it, is accessible only through the World Wide Web. Amazon.com Books (http://www.amazon. com/), physically headquartered in the northwestern US city of Seattle , Washington, promotes itself by suggesting that its inventory stands at a million books. This is many multiples more than even the very lar gest among US brick-and-mortar 'superstore' booksellers, like Borders or Barnes & Noble. Because you and I, as book buyers, enjoy ready acce ss to so many titles through this online vendor, we might be inclined to view Amazon's approach as an 'awesome' breakthrough in consumer con venience. It's just so, you know... way cool! It's the Book-of-the-Mon th Club retooled for the millennium, built for speed in ordering and b uying, and offering a seemingly infinite selection without a single ne gative-option postcard. Why, with just a modicum of online prompting, any book on the planet will march right up to your front door. You'll rarely need to stir from that favourite reading armchair, except perha ps to change your light bulb or refresh your glass of sherry. For the 'serious' reader this has to be akin to the fabled medieval land of Co ckayne. Okay, then, so maybe it's Brigadoon or Woodstock, or Edwardian Bloomsbury. Take your pick and bliss out.