This was certainly bourne out by our large Christmas sales of (click on a title to read a synopsis) Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe, The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell and Michel Faber’s The Book of Strange New Things to mention just a few of the books flooding out the door. 
On the other hand we ran out of Kinetic Sand (like play dough but more…thoughtful: It has a secret polymer in it!)… So, our customers are thinkers but also very hands on…
The UBS Otago Review of Books 