I can understand everyone knowing Lord of the Rings, as that one of the most, maybe the most, important work in the genre. But there are books before that and after that also matter a lot (and my understanding was always that one of the things that was important about Moorcock was he was a kind of reaction and response to Tolkien). Could the end of book stores have to do with this? I remember growing up, the way I got most of my books was going to books stores (whether used book shops, boutique book shops, mall shops like Walden Books or the big ones that came later like B Dalton and Borders). But most places would have a shelf that contained most of the major works in a given genre. A lot of how I navigated my way around horror and science fiction was from those book shelves (plus the staff often were informed and could point you in the right direction). But what I do often see are the books you mention. There is still a B. Dalton near me, and I go there occasionally. But places like this seem more rare and I often can't find pretty standard books in the genre shelves.
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