Nowadays, an avid reader longs to be spoiled with a great cup of coffee, a good book and a cozy sunlit window. The dream is an old standard, but how you go about getting your coffee and that good book is a hot topic.

Internet retailers such as Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, e-bay and even an online independent bookstore in Carrboro called Frontlist Books at are reportedly thriving online.

An example of the opportunities created by the Internet, Marc Brodsky’s Frontlist.com website eliminated a costly marketing tactic — catalog publishing and shipping costs. He started the business in April 1997 and by 1998, had just under $50,000 in sales, which was about enough to cover start-up expenses.

The sales generated by Frontlist are miniscule compared to Amazon.com, which had over $610 million in sales last year. It’s not all roses in the business, however, the bigger the business the larger the startup costs — Amazon lost about $124 million in 1998.

What do more traditional, local booksellers think of the technological surge?

"People are always talking about preserving the downtown areas and supporting local business but if we shop on the Internet, nobody is paying sales tax," says Joan Scott of the Country Bookshop in Southern Pines. "If it grows and grows and tax policies don’t change, the impact could reach more than the small shops."

The Country Bookshop, along with a few used bookshops, is about the last of its kind around here. Scott’s shop keeps its downtown-feel in Southern Pines by taking special orders, calling customers by name and by sending invitations to writers to speak at the shop. The Country Bookshop also holds many community events.

"It’s the personal touch that brings customers back, I think," she says.

Scott says she feels like college-town booksellers are the ones really feeling the pinch caused by Internet shopping because most students and professors are computer literate.

"You have to ask whether it’s worth the two or three bucks saved," she says.

Last month, booksellers such as Textbooks.com, Varsity.com and others started luring those returning college students to purchase textbooks online, even with advertisements at the bookstores checkout lines. The major difference with Internet versus the bookstore is availability — if students wait until the last minute to buy their books and they don’t have three days to wait for a book delivery, the Internet loses a sale.

The competition has led campus-owned stores across the country to begin developing their own websites that offer students more computer accessible services.

At Sandhills Community College, on-line purchasing is a hot topic.

"We’re leaning toward on-line services of some kind," says Royilyn Derr, bookstore manager. "We intend to expand and are considering Varsity.com and other providers."

Derr says she spoke to college President John Dempsey about the concept Monday of last week. Starting a Sandhills website with the bookstore’s inventory, similar to the bookstore site for N.C. State, is not out of the picture.

"We just don’t know how cost-effective that would be and how labor intensive it may turn out to be," Derr says.

Derr, a student through Sandhills partnership with St. Andrews Presbyterian College, says she buys her textbooks on-line cheaper than she can buy them at cost from the bookstore.

"It’s cheaper and convenient," she said. "I’ve never really had any delivery problems."

The online merchants typically charge lower prices because they don’t have the overhead.