In the now-defunct Borders and in Barnes and Noble bookstores, it seemed that the section with backpacking books contained mostly survival manuals, as if just venturing a toe's length outside the city would immediately put you into a survival situation.

I'm sure that anyone who was considering getting into hiking and backpacking for the first time would wonder just what they were thinking of getting themselves into. LOL

I don't know about Barnes and Noble but on Amazon I did a search on Hiking ( I limited it to electronic books) and got 1600 hits and the first page didn't have any survival books.

People don't use books for introductory information anymore. They use the net.

There is a lot of good books on Kindle and the handy thing is you can download a sample first.

If folk do not a kindle they can download the app on a Pc, mac, android or apple mobile device.

The only backpacking books I have been able to find in main stream brick and mortar book stores and most public libraries is "The Complete Walker by Colin Fletcher, Backpacker magazine,Outside magazine. That's why brick and mortar backpacking shop are important because they have books on the subject

In the year of the information age on the internet most action sport books by the time they get published the information in them is old news.

It sad to say the internet boards, blogs and stories are a living breathing constantly changing source for the most recent news or subjects about light weight backpacking.
Terry