The death of the bookshop?

[castleteachings]

Having spent the day in Brighton, my faith in the old fashion bookshop has been invigorated!
The narrow lanes are laced with small shops which are packed from ceiling to floor in books. Books, books and more books. You can pick them up, hold them and even read a real blurb!
With the commercialisation of book-buying thanks to large internet retailers, can we soon expect the traditional bookshop to gradually peter out? I personally love exploring beautiful bookshops, and interacting with the owner. I do hope that they manage to sustain business!

What do you think?

[qimissung]

They have certainly become an endangered species. I wish people who love books would make a concerted effort to save and sustain them. Any ideas, guys?

[cacian]

Yes don't shop for books online or Amazon and do not read off a screen.
This is the only way to preserve a bookshop.
I prefer to hold a book in my hand anytime.
My partner reads off a screen, he has all his books downloaded and he reads them off a tablet which looks very strange unatural to me.
One thing I know is that reading off a screen is very tiring/not very good for the eyes long term.

[Darcy88]

I now only order off Amazon or Chapters when I am in a rush to get the book. The only decent used book shop within 4 hours of here just closed its doors. Very depressing. I would go there once a year and spend 150 dollars, practically needing a wheel-barrow to carry off my heap of loot. In bigger cities it seems that used book shops are still going strong. The new book store I go to here in town is great. Its run by these old librarian like ladies who are nice and knowledgable. Its an easy environment in which to strike up a conversation. Encountering a pretty young woman looking at a copy of one of my favourite books is like coming across in a Grecian wood a naked huntress bent over sipping at a stream.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Its an easy environment in which to strike up a conversation. Encountering a pretty young woman looking at a copy of one of my favourite books is like coming across in a Grecian wood a naked huntress bent over sipping at a stream.

:lol: Brilliant. But methinks you are somewhat hoping or dreaming here.

Yes I love old bookshops and even though I've got a kindle and use it a lot I would still have to pop into an old creaky bookshop if I happened to be walking by. Certainly they are in danger, like everything else, but don't forget some of them are also likely to sell online via Amazon and so on, so it is not necessarily one or the other.

[kiki1982]

The problem with the internet is that you need to know what you want to buy. That does not work for me. I think psychologists call me a domino person in terms of clearing up (see something, clear it up, do not go by room). But I think it also works in terms of books: go into a bookshop and see what they have, then remember something you have always wanted to read and look at it. Then buy something else beause it takes your fancy. :blush:

That is the problem: I don't know what I want or I do rarely in which case I will go and buy it on the internet. I don't have any bookshops here with a lot of English (or it's crap) so I have to rely on the Christmas fair in Luxembourg where there is one second-hand bookstall and otherwise on the cheap Penguin classics selection they have at my local. If I do not encounter things that trigger my memory and produce an Aha-Erlebnis, I would not move on to different authors.

[Mutie]

Encountering a pretty young woman looking at a copy of one of my favourite books is like coming across in a Grecian wood a naked huntress bent over sipping at a stream.

My home town has a grim WH smith full of mean looking old ladies reading the lastest gore scene in a "lee child jack reacher book" smacking their lips in salivation. Just saw it yesterday. no intellectual hotties tho.

[Lacra]

Three months ago I discovered ( finally) the Paradise in Cairo: a three floors bookshop displaying whatever you want regarding books. I go there almost every Saturday and spend hours and hours. You can have your tea or coffee while reading a page from a new book or from your favorite magazine.

[Dirtbag]

There's a bookshop near my house that I always go to. I always find myself buying random books that I could probably find cheaper and faster online but I keep going book. It's not very rational behaviour.

[stlukesguild]

I just saw the film Hugo today. I was virtually drooling over the old Parisian book store:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/post_images/8330/hugo1122b.jpg?1321981774

Not long ago, we had a similar store here in town. It was cloistered away in a less-than-reputable neighborhood, but once you entered it was like going back in time. Books were piled to the ceiling... many accessible only with the aid of ladders. Small nooks and and hidden rooms abounded with unexpected treasures... and then last year the city used eminent domain to force the owners out. More room was needed for parking garages.:cuss::mad5:

When I first seriously began to collect books, there were many such bookstores. I believe the smell and the magical antique environment was half of the seduction. I used to spend hours browsing the shelves... until one by one they all disappeared... the victims of the big super-chains: Borders and Barnes and Noble. Now Borders has itself become the victim of Amazon.com... and B&N will likely follow suite.

Amazon.com and Alibris and other on-line sellers are great for finding those rare and out of print books that I have been seeking for years. They are also great for finding nearly any book in print for less than anyone else. Unfortunately, its not the same as browsing aimlessly through the shelves... picking up this or that old tome... measuring its heft and feeling its weight... flipping through a few pages and looking at the letter type and the paper and the binding as I considered just where to best spend my limited funds. Luckily I have amassed something of a small library of my own.

Encountering a pretty young woman looking at a copy of one of my favourite books is like coming across in a Grecian wood a naked huntress bent over sipping at a stream.

Brilliant. But methinks you are somewhat hoping or dreaming here.

Don't be so sure, Neely. I met my future wife in a book store... perusing a volume of Dante.:nod:

I later discovered that she had just grabbed the closest book as she saw me coming her way. We had met before and she saw me going into the store, and so she followed intent on striking up a conversation. Imagine her surprise when I looked at the book in her hand and said, "Oh... so you like Dante too.":shocked::lol:

[kasie]

....she saw me going into the store, and so she followed intent on striking up a conversation. Imagine her surprise when I looked at the book in her hand and said, "Oh... so you like Dante too.":shocked::lol:

It's good to know that while the best laid plans of mice and men gang oft awry, those of women have more success! :wink5:

It's fine for us as consumers to bemoan the passing of our favourite haunts, the smell, the feel of the wares to be found inside them, but they are businesses. The owners may love their wares as much as their customers but they have overheads, bills to pay, a living wage to make. Sadly, book stores rarely pay their way - I wonder if they ever really did? The same goes for the local butcher, fishmonger, baker - it isn't just that the amazons (or Tescos) of this world can profit by the economies of scale - the financial facts of life are pricing the small scale shopkeeper out of existence. If the bookseller charged what it cost him to sell that rare book, let alone cover the cost of acquiring it in the first place and make even a small profit, he would be priced out of existence anyway.

[Kingbob]

I think the bookshops will still exist definitely！Though the development of online bookstore attracts many readers，but they are just for convenience. If they have spared time，I'm sure they'd like to visit the bookshop as well. The feeling of being surrounded by piles of books is fantastic！

[hawthorns]

The local bookshop is through. They've been priced out of existence in my area by the big chains and Borders just folded with them. B&N is soon to follow. Honestly, I don't understand how any brick and mortar business can make a profit when a living room size space is $5000/mo base rent on the lease. There's still a few urban bookshops hanging on, but only because of the volume of foot trafic/tourism. The day the last of the bookshops with two cats roaming its shelves and aging paper, tobacco, and oak scents disappears is the day I check out of this life...