Yeah, that bookstore is pretty upscale. Not unlike others where browsers are free to read almost anything.

Asides from the protection from humidity and dirt, I feel they also don’t want to sell a frayed damaged book or magazine – I feel that would count for them as a loss – unless the customer paid for it, so they put limits on casual browsing. Otherwise and in some places they put out a selection of open unwrapped publications and let anyone, provided they also pay for the coffee or hang around and pay by the hour, to read at their leisure in a dedicated cafe.

Yeah, only sure way for you to know a new book is to scope out the copy online if it has an ebook equivalent.