BOOKS The Last Book -D.T. Max Confessions of a Bibliophile -Bill Holm Will Used Bookshops Become Rare Editions? -Jay Walljasper Discuss e-books in the Literature conference in Café Utne's: cafe.utne.com

The recent outpouring of concern about the fate of America's independent bookstores is well deserved, since these institutions perform an important public service by introducing us to new writers and exciting ideas as well as boosting the cultural life of communities across the country.

But there's one bright spot in the bookselling business that has been largely overlooked: the rise of used-book stores. Often featuring more titles than even the most cavernous superstore, these little shops nestled in city neighborhoods and near college campuses perform the equally important service of reintroducing us to older books, ranging from last year's best-sellers to ancient texts. They also offer generally lower prices (if you can resist the temptation of pricey first editions) and contribute to our cultural richness by getting us in touch with worthy but perhaps forgotten writers and ideas.

'Ninety-eight percent of all the books ever published are out of print,' writes Brad Zellar, co-owner of Minneapolis' estimable Rag & Bone Books, in the Twin Cities alternative weekly City Pages (Nov. 22, 2000). The out-of-print category includes 'great novels, obscure treatises on everything from dowsing to rainbows, books that have fallen out of fashion or were simply ahead of their time,' Zellar writes.

But more than just access to hard-to-find information, these stores offer book lovers the near-mystical experience of browsing,combing the shelves, inspecting the covers, opening a volume to read a page or two, discovering a title you've sought for years or, better yet, a splendid book you never knew existed. A lot of the pleasure in buying used books comes from these curious shops themselves, which invariably reflect the quirky personalities of the proprietors.

But just as giant chain retailers and online merchandisers forever altered the business of selling new novels and nonfiction, the used-book trade is now in the throes of a similar upheaval. 'In barely six years, the Internet has brought more changes to the used- and rare-book business than it had seen in the previous several hundred years,' Zellar writes, 'and at this early stage of the relationship, it's probably too soon to tell whether the World Wide Web is keeping stores alive or killing them off.'