As a bibliophile, I fear the coming demise of an institution and product I love, the bookstore and the physical book. With technology, we became able first to order books online, then to buy electronic editions, both actions facilitated by one particular company.
The virtual bookstore, however, could not replace several aspects of the brick-and-mortar variety. The old-fashioned institution is an actual locale; a place of respite for your home or place of business. Not just that, you could could discover treasures just by browsing — or by chancing upon one title while browsing for another. Or while randomly wandering through a bookstore alone — or with a friend.
This happened to me on Sunday evening when, after dinner with a new friend in Glendale, we ended up in an adjacent Barnes & Noble. There, in the essays section, I alighted on a book about a man, Lionel Trilling, who crafted an expression that helped me define my sometime predicament in life (“the dark and bloody crossroads where literature and politics meet”). I might not have discovered the book through an amazon search. Trilling doesn’t always come to mind.
Yet, for nearly two full days after first seeing the book, this book kept coming to mind. I have this crazy theory (well, maybe it’s not so crazy) that if you see a book in a bookstore and you keep thinking about it (without outside prompting), it’s a sign that you’re supposed to buy the book.
So, today, rather than return to Glendale to buy the book, I ordered it. On amazon.
Dan – at least you ordered a paper copy – that will help keep loggers, paper mills, printers, truckers, Amazon warehousemen, and UPS delivery drivers employed for a bit longer.
This is what I’m talking about when I lament the declining number of jobs for a growing number of occupations. These jobs are disappearing far faster than there are new occupations coming online.
Full disclosure: I am a hypocrite. I still order paper books but I am getting used to reading with Kindle on iPad… it is nice to order a book and get it right now.
I understand Dan,
I can’t afford Catalyst Games books anymore so I just get the PDFs, a loss for my FLGS. All my Pathfinder stuff comes direct from Paizo. I get them cheaper and I get free PDFs. Again, not good for the FLGS.
Maybe if DC’s digital coupon idea takes off it will help the local comic book stores.
I understand Dan,
I can’t afford Catalyst Games books anymore so I just get the PDFs, a loss for my FLGS. All my Pathfinder stuff comes direct from Paizo. I get them cheaper and I get free PDFs. Again, not good for the FLGS.
Maybe if DC’s digital coupon idea takes off it will help the local comic book stores.
I love bookstores but I live in a rural area and our only bookstore has a decidedly leftist bent. Much of what I want to read I can’t find and the closest major bookseller is 160 miles round trip. Amazon has been a godsend for me and many others like me.
And yes, I do have a kindle as well. I average around two books a week and I have no place left to put them.
Yeah, I’m in the same place. I love holding a book. There is nothing like that tactile feel of the thing. Yet, since the Sonic-Mate got me the Kindle Fire for Christmas, I’ve bought more than a few books in digital form. The more I use the thing, the more I realize just how much I really really like it.
Your lament is not new. Every time technology changes, someone will lament the passing of the old.
We no longer ride horses.
We no longer – for the most part – tell stories around the campfire. Or rely on people with phenomenal memories to remember our stories for us.
I’m sure someone looked on the automatic transmission and saw the end of an era.
Some people are horrified by the idea that newspapers – printed on paper – will soon disappear. Even though it seems clear that they haven’t figured out how to stay in business.
The independent bookstore died some time ago – mostly at the hands of Borders and Barns & Nobel. The small neighborhood hardware store is all but extinct – killed by the big-box home center. Starbucks has killed a lot of independent coffee houses. That is the way the markets work.
If all bookstores go, then it is because we have found a better way. We will stop wasting everyone’s time making paper, and driving delivery trucks to pass along information. Not everything published is “War and Peace” after all.
The difference between the little/local coffee shop/hardware store loss to the “big guys”; and the bookstore loss to the digital world is you are loosing the experience too. You loose the browsing, the sipping coffee on a rainy day with friends/family, the smell, the comfy chairs and a chapter or two. Then there are the libraries! I am enjoying reading my way through authors I never thought I would like, but I hope to never reach the end.
I also am a hypocrite, I have a Nook Color and a Kindle, but I also buy lots of books, check lots out of the library, and spend many happy hours with my nose in a real book!
First, I think there’s something disturbingly “Farenheit 451”-ish that the device that is replacing real books is called “Kindle”.
I like reading the classics and I’ll always buy actual books. I love going to the bookstore. As sonicfrog alluded to, there’s something wonderful about holding a book (in my case usually an unread novel) in your hands, feeling the weight and imagining the stories inside. Plus I like the look of books on the shelf in my office. However, if devices such as the Kindle are getting more people to read, more power to them.
And Zendo Deb, your point is well taken, but I think people still ride horses.
I share your lament Dan. I love books, real books, but like others, I have succumbed to e-books, having had just about every version of Kindle and now the iPad. Every summer when we decamp to our home in Greece, part of this ritual at one time included mailing a box of books and keeping our fingers crossed we would all arrive around the same time. It has made life much easier, but I often feel guilty. 🙁
Really? You “alighted”? Who talks like that?
Still don’t have a Kindle. Thought I was getting one for Christmas 2010, but it went to my dad and he hasn’t touched it since 12/26/10.
Amazon, like blogs, rarely brings people face-to-face.
Libraries have a new lease on life I think, because they provide free Internet and/or free desk space to the unemployed – or the retired. Whenever I’m not working (not for somebody else, I mean), I still have lots of work to do and libraries are a great way to get out of the house for it. (I also use cafes, but always buy something at those. Whereas my taxes already paid for the library.)
” . . . I love, the bookstore and the physical book.”
Yes, and nothing beats the USED bookstore. There one can find out-of-print; no longer published gems. Some of my most treasured books were found while just browsing in those musty old stacks!
I also have similar theories about books and cds, but for me, I need to come across the book or the cd a few times before I finally buy it.
To reiterate Charles’ point, I’m pretty sure that used bookstores will remain even if the ordinary retail sellers of new books become even more of a rarity. I had no experience with used bookstores until I was in graduate school, and even then, I didn’t frequent the ones in Charlottesville very often.
As far as other bookstores go, I became a dedicated online book shopper when I lived in a small, rural town in the midwest and there was only a rather small college bookstore. The only other places to buy books in close proximity were religious bookstores or the Wal-Mart, neither of which sold the kinds of titles that interested me. But also since I started buying more books online, I’ve become much more aware of the biases of both independent bookstores and the “mainstream” retailers. I enjoy wandering in and browsing on occasion, but I often find a greater range of things by looking online than I would if I were just browsing the shelves.
For me, bookstores have always been magical places. I go inside one, and I vanish. I can be in there for hours, scarcely even aware that any time has passed. And I emerge laden with treasures.
I hope bookstores never altogether vanish from the scene. They are irreplaceable. Although I plead guilty to using Amazon quite a lot, the experience just isn’t the same.
A catchy phrase, indeed. You readers should, if they you do not yet own copies, order Norman Podhoretz’s collection of literary-political essays, The Bloody Crossroads – Podhoretz, who studied under Trilling, and who also has a chapter on him and his wife in his memoir, Ex-Friends (also worth ordering).
Found an interesting looking book covering Margaret Thatcher’s career at the Salvation Army store. Didn’t pick it up.
My dad hits the closer by Goodwill store, buys a small stack of books and then donates them back.
I still read books & comic books; Marvel & DC is trying to get their readers to by digital copies for their I-Phones, I-Pads, etc al. However, nothing replaces the real book. Real books are still part of the present & will be for some time to come. Digital copies can be lost or corrupted. Real books don’t have that problem.
First, I think there’s something disturbingly “Farenheit 451″-ish that the device that is replacing real books is called “Kindle”.
That’s an amusing observation. 🙂
I received an iPad for Christmas, and I downloaded the Kindle App. I also downloaded the first set of the original Sherlock Holmes stories from iBooks. Which then prompted me to pull out my copy of all the original illustrated versions that I received as a kid and re-read them. So the technology sent me back to the hardcover. I love my iPad, but I’m not sure that for me it will ever be a good substitute.
My partner and I love books. I had to donate 50 to the library recently just because we were out of space. I can imagine the dismay the movers will feel when we finally relocate and they see all the books. LOL.
Also, I’d like to second Sarah’s comment @ #4. When I was stationed in Germany in the late 90s, Amazon was an invaluable resource, because the base PX could only carry so many books. I think Amazon will help keep books alive.
Sebastian – Wait till they start issuing comic books for iPad type devices that have flash animation within the frames. Then you have something unique that the paper version just can’t copy.
Technology is moving too rapidly. Today´s invention or gimmick will be obsolete tomorrow. That is a shame. I, too, love books and enjoy browsing before buying. After seeing a John Birch video (supporting Ron Paul) in which they leveled many criticisms of Newt Gngrich, referring to his book To Renew America. I´m rereading the book and am almost finished and there isn´t anything in it to support their claims.
I also, love movies and studied cinema at LACC. I have an 8 mm camera, and projector. and several reels of film that I bought plus my homework. At that time Beta max was competing with the VCR. I waited before investing when Beta slipped away. and have couple of hundred cassettes. Along comes dvde´s, bluetooth, and what ever else. Apart from having spent so much money on what is now obsolete, you can´t find parts for repairs, no shop to service the old stuff which becomes a candidate for the garbage heap. I´m all for capitalism, but I would think it could do better if service and products were offered for the old as well as the new.
Give me a bookstore to smell the new and the old used books.
I believe Amazon will save books. I’ve found more books on that website than anywhere else. And that is one of the many reasons why Borders failed; and the possible downfall of Barnes and Nobles. I got so tired of seeing only “trendy” books being stocked. Anything that’s on Oprah’s book list or on the New York Times bestseller was in full supply. However, the obscure book or a book that’s been largely forgotten? Forget it.
I’m looking at my bookshelf right now. Many of the books I purchased were not found(or could be ordered) at brick-and-mortar stores. I love strolling in a bookstore. I could be there for hours. But many of the stores from Crown Books(am I dating myself?) only carry flavor of the moment stuff. Maybe that’s endemic of a larger issue. We are in a very anti-intellectual, anti-philosophical age. So in a sense, Borders would only have flavor of the moment items. I’d like to visit Strand Bookstore in NYC. Or have they closed?
When I get the latest packet from the Conservative Book Club and I see anything I like, I make a note of it. Then, in about six months, I order it from Amazon at a fraction of the price. Works for me.
I miss the leisurely browsing bookstores offer. But it is nice to be able to get whatever I want at a bargain.
In the classic movie, THE DARK CHRYSTAL, writing is described as, “words that stay.” If we have only digital books and computers, doesn’t that put our very civilization on an ever more percarious ledge? All records would be subject to obliteration by an unusual solar storm, EMP, or computer virus. Can it be called writing if no writing is done and it can be deleted with the press of a button?
Hi Dan,
I understand the lament, but I think that the issue isn’t about browsing. When you say,
I wonder what you do when you go on-line to “It that Cannot be Named”? As for me, I look at a book, click on other titles near it, or just plug in a name, and go somewhere else in the “store” webpages, read a review, hear someone rave about another book, then go there. That is browsing, I think, finding treasures undreamed of… and just like Trilling–a matter of chance (I am reading a book, I found that way).
What is missing is the tactile and other sensory input that I have come to associate with bookstores (the smell, feel, ambient noses, other customers and sales folks, etc), that made going to the local store so much fun. I also miss sitting on the floor and reading a book that I might or (gulp!) might not buy. The “e-store” has that feature in part, but it railroads the way you can experience it, and leaves you hanging in the most annoying way. There is less human interaction, and that is a problem, even if one can still converse comment to comment, there is something that we privilege in the face to face that the “e-store” cannot replace, and which will disappear (at least at the ever-shrinking corner bookstore…).
I disagree. In the cases you cite, the problem isn’t that it moves too quickly, it’s that we allow the free market to decide, and sometimes, especially with technology, that can be a hindrance and indeed cause products to be obsolete quickly.
Example. Look at the marvelous devices we now call phones. Wouldn’t it have been great to have had them ten years ago? Ten years ago, we did have PDA’s (I had the Casio Casiopea 110). Me and the Sonic-Mate would go to the ComDex Technology show every year in Las Vegas. In about 2003, Nokia was showing one of the true “smart phones, a clam-shell device, the 8100 series I think, that looked so cool. They already had it in Europe for almost a year, yet the US was not going to get it because there was no standard set up for data transmission to cell phones (CSM, CDMA for example) and phone manufacturers were reluctant to launch their top end products here in the US. So we in the states ended up a good five years behind Europe and Japan as far as cell phone gadgets.
I mentioned PDAs for a reason. By 2005, the once hot hot PDA market was all but dead. People had moved on to laptop computers. It would be a few years later before the PDA would re-emerge, now in the guise of the “smart phone”. But there was a good four year gap in between that evolution. Yet we could have had smart phones much sooner than we did. And it wasn’t because technology moved too slowly, it was because there was no standard set.
The same thing happened with HDTV. Japan had HD a good ten years before we did. We were slow because the FCC took forever to decide which tech standard to use (there were three options when I was a Telecom major in the early 90s), but the FCC was relying on TV manufacturers and broadcasters to decide which avenue they wanted to pursue, and because each wanted different things no one could decide.
I favor the market place, but sometimes, it can be clumsy. On the other hand, though I recognize that regulation can in some instances speed things along, I am by no in favor of massive regulations of industry. You only have to look at the old Soviet Union and Cuba to see what happens with the heavy hand of government trying to determine everything. What would have happened if the government had stepped in to regulate data storage… We’d still be using cassettes and 1.44 MB floppy disks. I’m gladd we don’t have to use those anymore. I’m really really glad we don’t have to use 3.5 megabyte discs any more. Storing any amount of data on CD’s was a serious PITA. And I’m now using a Presonus FireStudio Project audio interface coupled with Studio One audio recording software all working through my computer equipped with an AMD Phenom II 3.3 Gigahertz processor to record my little solo album, all technology that wasn’t even available just six years ago, and purchased for probably a total of $600 bucks within the last couple of years. Ten years ago, not only would it have cost at least a couple of thousand smacks to do in a studio what I can do now at home, but could I not have been able to record with the same quality or fabulous software options as I can today.
There is no “too fast” as far as I’m concerned.
And what about cures for diseases such as cancer and AIDS. New and ever increases in technology speed is drawing us ever to those cures. It can’t happen fast enough.
As Glenn Reynolds would say… Faster please!
TGC, my parents are not into high tech gadgets; the most my Dad has is a laptop computer to look on the internet. When my Mom wants something from the internet, she asks me to do it for her. Both my parents–along with myself–still read books. Although I do have an I-Phone, the most I use it is for communication purposes & I use my Facebook app a great deal.
I agree, I love the physical aspect of books, and for crying out loud, I read a computer screen all day – I don’t want to read one at night for pleasure! I’m rather annoyed at B&N that they are selling more nooks than books right now. Went into my local B&N store and my heart sank at the new layout. Very sad……
If it wasn’t for the Nook, they could very well be out of business also. There was some talk within B & N that they were going to separate the Nook business from the brick and mortar one. That news did not go over well, because the stores would fold without the e-readers to attract business..
I also use my I-Phone as an I-Pod; I forgot how much I missed my portable music. I used to carry a Walkman & tapes at college when I studied.
I have to admit, I received a Kindle for Christmas from my parents. It is an amazing piece of technology and I’ve already bought many books (plus a lot of free, public domain books that I’ve been wanting to read…classics which I didn’t necessarily want to spend money on in a book store) or silly books that I will probably only read once or books I will only use for reference material.
I agree though, I love bookstores. My friend, Cris, and I go to Barnes and Noble almost every time we hang out. We like browsing and, occasionally, buying a book that we might not have looked at closer online. There is just something wonderful about paper books that you can physically hold in your hand, write notes in, lend to friends, and read until they fall apart.
That’s probably why I have nearly 200 books in my tiny dorm room…I never feel at home with out my books.
I don’t know how many books I have. Enough to fill four bookcases, anyway. I love books, and I love the concept of non-volatile storage media. But I also like the way e-publishing breaks up the stranglehold of the publishing industry.
I still get to visit a tiny, used bookstore in the center of town after leaving the consignment clothing shop a block away from it. The lady who owns it still accepts books for credit toward purchases. The day that she opened the store, I walked in and told her how much I love “hole-in-the-wall” bookstores and she looked around and said, “this is definitely a hole in the wall.” I saw her dad helping stock shelves that day and noticed the pride that he felt in his little girl beginning the pursuit of her dream. Man, I sure hope that she can afford to stay in business.
On this topic, my friend, we agree completely. I plan to write a book someday. Its title will be _Interesting Things I Have learned on the Way to Looking Up Something Else_.
Catherine