Old Person’s Rant: Why Bookstores Rule
I have a thing for bookstores, especially independently owned bookstores. For one thing, it’s part of my iconoclastic nature, which opposes big corporations that control too much. And secondly, I am a true believer in browsing. I have found some of the best books I’ve ever read by simply browsing at good bookstores. These are books that I am 100 percent convinced I never would have stumbled across had I gone online and tried to search for a good book to read. Here are just a few examples of the amazing books I found while browsing:
Fermat’s Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World’s Greatest Mathematical Problem by Simon Singh
Red-Tails in Love by Marie Winn (observations of the red-tail hawks living in New York City’s Central Park)
The Ghost Map by Steve Johnson (about the 1854 cholera outbreak in London)
High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places by David Breashears
I don’t buy books online; I buy them at bookstores. But independent bookstores are fading fast. What do you think will happen to bookstores generally? Will all of our book-buying move online? Do you care?
Fresh news of another Boston-area independent bookstore biting the dust.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:46 am
I came across Fermat’s Enigma in a beach house when I was good and bored. Amazing book. So is Singh’s next one on Big Bang (I’ve spaced the name of it).
Newsweek recently made a big fuss over the Kindle, but I’m not convinced. Books need to be held in the hand, pages need to be turned, and a computer is just never going to feel right.
I’m so with you on bookstores!
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
We don’t have any decent indepenent bookstores near us, otherwise I’d go there. I like B & N, none of the others.
Except for personal word of mouth, I get all of my books from browsing. I must have a physical book, nothing else will do.
Thank God my daughter has gotten in to books. A computer generation person has been indoctrinated, so books will survive. I’ve done my part; D
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:47 pm
I love book stores (especially USED book stores) so I like to do my browsing and shopping in them, rather than online. However, when I know exactly what I want, it is so much easier to just go online and have it shipped.
As for computerized books or whatever they’re called, NEVER! Books must be felt, pages turned, musty or newly-opened smells enjoyed, textures appreciated, etc. Heck, I even print out most of the blog pages I travel to because I enjoy the tactile part of reading.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Sometimes I buy books online, but it is not nearly as enjoyable as doing so in person.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
My favorite little bookstore was an award winning independant bookstore last year! I’ve been shopping there since I moved to Arizona about 13 years ago and I won’t buy books anywhere else. They have new and used but I actually prefer used – you can tell a book is well loved if it’s a little beat up.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Love browsing both in person and online. I tend to buy both ways too. I’ve been a big skeptic of the e-readers, but have to say that I will probably buy the Kindle 2.0 version. I actually held a Sony reader and could not believe how far the technology has come. I do not see this as an either or situation. I expect to read books electronically as well as in paper form (can one ever replicate the new book smell, or how it feels?). But I also listen to audio books – again simply another way to “read” books – all serve a particular use case.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
My favorite past time used to be browsing in book stores….I could stay there for hours and days. When we moved to Idaho….no book stores within decent driving distance (93 miles was the closest). The one lonely independent store closed right before we moved here. Thus began my online book passion. I can spend hours and hours looking at books and reading the “flaps” for info. I also worked at the local Library and devoured everything I could get my hands on. I think big box stores and the likes of B&N and Borders will smash the small independents…sad. Each has its benefit and pleasure.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:20 pm
I have always loved small indepebdant family owned bookstores….Now, a thing of the pat, with a few exceptions…! We used to have some great bookstores here in Los Angeles….most are gone, except for a “specialty store like Samuel French….! This is a bookstore that specializes in Theatre, Films, TV, Ballet, Music, Etc….Talk about Browsing….FABULOUS Browsing is available there….even chairs to sit in are available…!
There is one other bookshop that I can think of out in The Valley, that is small and browseable…A Gem! Other than that? It’d pretty much Borders and B & N. There are some others, I know….but basically the kind of shop you are talking about is a relic, if it exists at all…..And that is very very sad.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:46 pm
We don’t have a bookstore in town *sob*, so we’re forced to buy most of our books online. I miss the smell of a bookstore.
Whenever we travel, we stop at every bookstore we see.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I love books, I love the smell of books, I love book stores, I love the library. I’m in the minority in this area. All the small book stores and used book stores here have closed. There are bookstores here….they are big….and they all carry the same corp. name.
When I’ve gone in these stores there are very few people there. How sad.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I just spent a couple of heavenly hours in Powell’s Book Store in Portland. Got some great finds.
Sometimes a book cover will get my attention or a recommendation by staff. Not the sort of thing I can find online.
But I love my Sony e-book, because with all the titles I have in it I never run out of reads.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:37 am
No body has mentioned Libraries- You don’t have to buy books on line or in a store, you can borrow them from a library.
Don’t get me wrong I love to browse book stors but I don’t have room or money to BUY all the books I want to read.
Most libraries have books in various formats, Print, Large Print, Audio, and if they don’t have the one you know you want they can usually get it for you.
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I came back to say a) I do love libraries, I go there quite frequently (having three kids tends to cut back on your buying abilities) and b) I do admit to loving to browse online for books, but unless it’s something I need to have shipped quickly (like I’m late for buying a present and amazong is the way to go because it’s some strange title that someone has actually *requested*) then I browse online but then bookstore or library it.
whew!
January 25th, 2008 at 7:39 am
I agree with you. Independent bookstores rock. You have to seek them out, but they always deliver. And it does this librarians heart good to see that someone beat me to the punch and mentioned libraries.
January 27th, 2008 at 11:54 am
When my pals with used bookstores hired 20-somethings to handle their e-commerce, younger online customers actually started coming into their brick-and-mortar stores. The kids re-defined this as a kind of “meet-up” where you can, like, browse, and even buy things.Totally, awesome, dude.
March 24th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
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