Coffeshop - the third place

Very interesting. Ray Oldenburg's "The Great Good Place" which has just been published as a paperback, is a must-read. A short description:

This book is a classic in the sociological literature on the social and cultural geography of American Culture. Oldenburg shows how and why we were on the way to creating a placeless culture even before the computer revolution exacerbated the tend. The wholesale and largely uncritical acceptance of the automobile, place-hostile zoning ordinances, and puritanical meddling have conspired to produce a culture which is rapidly extinguishing haunts and hangouts - the sort of real places of pure sociability which contribute so much to the quality of life and which Oldenburg sees missing in the narrow, money-grubbing, time-driven culture of late century Americans. In his book he offers wise and witty prescriptions for how we can turn this around and once again produce a "Great Good Place."