Are Bookworms Killing The Bookstore?

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From BookRiot:

Here in Memphis, The Booksellers is going belly up – causing an emotional shock among my friends almost as great as the election. Since I’m a senior citizen Book Rioter, I’ve seen countless bookstores come and go. I remember the thrill of their openings and the depression of their closings. I know of only one bookstore older than myself, and I think I’ll outlive it. But hell, nothing seems to last anymore. I’m truly sad bookstores are going out of business, but aren’t we to blame?

 

Among my bookish friends lamenting the demise of our favorite bookstore, we feel something significant has changed in our lives. The Booksellers used to be Davis-Kidd Booksellers, which at one time had several locations across Tennessee, with legions of devoted fans. Evidently not enough. Will any bookstore stay in business in these changing technological times?

I admit my guilt. I’ve bought dozens of books this month.  None from a new bookstore. I now prefer digital books – either Kindle editions or Audible audiobooks. I own over two thousand books I carry around in my iPhone 6s Plus. I’d need a Class 4 truck do that with hardbacks.

. . . .

I went to Barnes & Noble Monday, our last remaining bookstore selling new books, and spent $35. But I bought two expensive computer magazines and a remaindered coloring book – no new books. For over forty years in my younger life, I’d visit bookstores two or three times a week, always hanging out in the science and science fiction sections. My Barnes & Noble have large sections for those books. However, I didn’t even glance at them. I’ve decided it’s unfair to use their shelves for perusing books I would only buy at Amazon.

Link to the rest at BookRiot

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8 thoughts on “Are Bookworms Killing The Bookstore?”

  1. A lot of money went into author’s pockets if he purchased indie books from Amazon. Way more than if he had spent the same amount at a B&N, right? Isn’t THAT a great thing?

  2. I don’t get the sentiment, honestly. I mean, I love bookstores–because they have books. I don’t really care for the stores, specifically, especially now that BN doesn’t even have a chair to sit and look at a few books.

    So, he’s still buying books, just in a different form and from an online store. His buying is still supporting authors and depending on what he’s buying, publishers.

  3. Still:
    1) Not my job to save the bookstore
    2) No decent bookstore anywhere on the island (used, yes, mall store, yes, no all-round bookstore at all…)

    AltheIslander

  4. I keep coming back to this quote from when Left Bank Books in NYC had to close…

    While visitors were numerous at Left Bank, when it came to the number of actual customers, the numbers were pretty bleak. “The percentage of people who stop in and actually buy something is extremely small– we get a lot of people who come in and say, ‘Wow, what a wonderful place this is!’ and ‘I’m so glad you’re making it,’” Margarita explained. “And, frankly, toward the end I wanted to charge admission because we were being treated as a museum.” But a museum, as she pointed out, at least gets some kind of support.

    She also pointed out that people had an inexplicable disconnect between “liking the bookstore” and realizing that they had to spend money there for them to continue in business. As said in this OP…

    I admit my guilt. I’ve bought dozens of books this month. None from a new bookstore.

    He says it seems like book purchasers he knows aren’t buying that much paper, and doesn’t that make them culpable in the demise of the brick and mortar bookstore?

    Well, yes. Stupid question, that.

  5. i think i understand

    when no one watches LOTR anymore, when Game of Thrones has been eclipsed by the latest noise, there will be similar sentiments of nostalgia. It’s alright if one recalls, that with all things of life, bad and good, and even excellent: This too shall pass.

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