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I think your looking at it incorrectly. The court is saying that the right of person to remain anonymous in their choice of reading material trumps the interest of the gov't in viwing this info. You won't be able to remain anonymous if the gov't can look at the booksellers records for any purpose it deems neccesary. Just like gun registration, I'm sure the gov't has good reason for wanting the info but the potential harmful use which the gov't could put that information to outweighs the benefit. And unlike guns,the right to read books of your choosing is even more important than RKBA. Giving the gov't the power to see what people are reading would have a downright "chilling effect" on the first amendment. Maybe if the gov't's need to know was a little more important, say if the book was on how to build a nuclear bomb, and they found it along with traces of plutonium they would have a pretty good argument, but not for this. How long would it be before they would be asking for list of readers and donators to FR because there was freep this poll print out found at a crime scene? Under your belief it would be just fine for them to do so, and I can sure guess the effect it would have on the number of visitors to this site in the future. Plus its not like the book has a serial number, identifying the owner, to actually figure out the crime they would need the name of everyone who bought a copy since I'm sure the druggies had enough intelligence that they didn't send it to the super secret drug factory. Now every reader including the merely curious would be "under suspicion" and I'm sure the gov't wouldn't merely ignore the names of the those other "innocent" people who purchased such material. Sorry its so long.

No, I believe you are looking at the issue incorrectly. The police can, with a proper warrant, investigate things far more intimate than a book purchase. Medical records, the contents of your house, what websites you've examined, banking records.

All these things are "protected" by the requirement of a showing that the police have good cause to link the search to a crime. This simply isn't any different. The idea that there is a special right of privacy greater than my medical records, my house, my bank records, in a book purchase is silly.