The Savage Detectives and the Hopefully Greatly Exaggerated Death of Literature

A few months ago, while still living in DC, I was wandering through the city and I noticed quite the crowd squeezing into the doors of my local independent bookstore, Olssons. Wow, I thought, is there some big-name author giving a reading and signing? Or perhaps some cool band is playing an impromptu, afternoon set? But no -- I got closer and realized that the crowd was due to the fact that Olssons, a small local chain, was closing this particular location, and selling off its stock at a big ...