[asdff]

One benefit for me is that it's faster and easier to walk into my neighborhood bookstore and walk out with a good book that maybe I've already read a couple exerpts from right in the store (not some brief preview online), than doing my own legwork on book discovery and waiting for a shipment. I love my local bookstore, the people working there have great taste since they are literally professionals at this.

[techfoolery]

I see your point, but I'm more interested in folks who put theory into practice rather than folks who intimately know theory if that makes sense.

I think those can be two completely different tastes.