Sir, – Are we witnessing the slow and sad demise of the traditional bookshop? Has the advent of the internet sounded the death knell for these now moribund browsing joints? It would appear so. The latest one to bite the dust is the long-established Exchange Bookshop in downtown Dalkey. Are these once-cherished institutions now nothing more than quaint anachronisms? Has the arrival of Amazon, Kindle and e-books rendered “these idiosyncratic adornments to local shopping” (Rick Gekoski) virtually redundant? Alas, yes! I suppose it can only be a matter of time before the department store goes the same way. However, that’s “progress”. – Yours, etc,