Should indie bookstores hate Amazon more than B&N?

Ask the people that run your local, independent bookstore about Amazon and you can watch their blood begin to boil. Most don't just credit the online retailer with attempted murder - trying to eradicate indies - they also see the company as destroying American literature. Basically, the narrative is that Amazon will sell books at any price and co-opt authors in order to sell, sell, sell [insert a variety of goods] regardless of the profit and the health of the book market.

However, an article in The Digital Reader tries to make the case that the "big box bookstores" like Barnes & Noble and the defunct Borders were the real culprits. The evidence? The recent indie bookstore resurgence and the idea that Amazon wasn't a super-strong player in the worst era of indie decline.

In an informal bit of research, I asked an indie owner about this hypothesis and her reply was that Amazon was and is the problem, the argument from The Digital Reader notwithstanding.

The good news is that no matter who is to blame for their period of decline, local bookstores seem to be winning lately and even growing, relying on the personal touch and in-store events to court the ever-shrinking population of book readers (an article in the Atlantic Wire notes that just 50% of adults read literature for pleasure). The possible bad news - that Amazon is killing American literature itself - can't be proven yet, but one thing is sure: indie book owners are not Amazon fans no matter what happens and no matter the evidence.