Actually, the negative-option book club is an entirely different business model from Amazon.  Book of the Month, moreover, contracted for special printings; they were an aggregator/publisher, not a reseller.<p>The Hemingway point is really unconvincing; by "truck", of course, I mean the changing economies of direct interstate shipment of bulk items.  When Hemingway was born, moving mass economically meant either water or rail transit; when he died, trucks were careening down interstate highways to deliver parcels for a fraction of what they cost in the 19th century.