Letter to the Editor:

The anonymous quote in the article (“Curling Up With a Good Bookstore”), which appeared in the Jan. 13 Orange County Life section of The Times, was irresponsible, self-righteous and totally inexcusable. The responsible booksellers at Brentano’s South Coast Plaza find offense at being referred to as “Bimbos and Bimbettes” by an unnamed source who claimed that people in chain stores “don’t know a book from an onion ring.” He had one good reason for begging anonymity--he was not only wrong, but gratuitously offensive. I suggest that the anonymous slanderer visit Brentano’s and observe booksellers who are not only informative but informed, which he, obviously, is not.

--Lisa Cannon, senior bookseller, Brentano’s South Coast Plaza