Yesterday's suggestion from a reader that "booksellers looking to attract customers may not want to exclude the 5 to 10 percent of the population who have cat allergies" was recieved with some skepticism. "I have cat allergies, and I have three cats. You gotta acclimate!" says one email. "No one would suggest not planting grass in public parks because I have a severe grass allergy. Take some meds and suck it up." Another reader hinted that allergy sufferers could always order books from Amazon.com; oh, sure, I thought, that will go over well with all the indie bookstore owners who read the blog.

Also, asks one publicist, "Why aren't there more bookstore DOGS? People love dogs! I would go out of my way to shop at a bookstore that had a bookstore dog."