Has the Kindle Ruined My Bookstore Experience?

[djulian]

Originally Posted by vishcompany

I am about to move in two months time and I will use the oppurtunity to chuck out a load of books. Travel lightly... e-reading has been a blessing to me. I like books, but I also like free space and I don't like carrying and storing them.

My wife will probably kill me for asking, but if you're anywhere near northern Indiana and feel like chucking those books my way...

[HomeInMyShoes]

Some books are easier to buy in person than on-line. I find recipe books and children's books much more enticing when I see them and can browse through them physically. Other things I can do mostly on-line. For the most part the book stores are failing me because they have walls of Twlight and Hunger Games, but little for showing me the staff picks of if you liked this sort of thing.

So I do some shopping in person, but when I can head home and go to the Chapters.ca and buy the book I saw at the store for $20 for $12 and free shipping on orders of $25 or more, I tend to save up a few books and buy on-line. I'm pretty sure that model is a nail in the coffin of the bookstores, but then I don't think Chapters as a corporation would be sad if I spent $25 on-line instead of $25 in-store and just closed the physical store. Bad news for my city, but the writing is on the wall and has been there for quite some time.

[SuburbanSteve]

Hmm... have to admit I miss browsing in the bookshops new and used I can remember spending many an hour hunting out new authors reading a chapter or two and generally passing the time in a pleasant way, since obtaining a kindle I don't seem to research books and authors as much as I used to do when they were in hard copy. (sighs and feels nostalgic.)

[QuantumIguana]

I don't buy anything online if it is possible to buy it in a store locally. I like getting out of the house now and then. E-books are about the only thing I buy online. I do still buy paper books, I'll buy used paper books, and I buy my science fiction and fantasy from Uncle Hugo's (except for public domain or self-published books). The big box stores are going away, they are dinosaurs. When they are gone, smaller stores will be more adapted to the smaller paper book market.

[Anabran]

Hi Since getting my first
E-reader( Kindle fire) eight months ago, I have read about 18 titles.
That is more books than I have read in the the previous 30 years at least.
E-readers have converted me in to a person who reads alot.

After the financial Disaster of 2008 I had to live "with what I could carry" for good a while.

Now that I am settled I have never been able to go back to "collecting" things such as physical DVD's ,book magazines etc.
In fact I dont do much of any physical media anymore.

Give me one hours notice and I could literally relocate to another state or another continent
and easily carry my 13 inch Macbook Laptop to do my graphics& animation work
my small movie collection ripped to digital movie file on a small FW drive.
and of course my E book collection of sc-fi
( All the Dune novels both Frank & Son Brian) other books on Geo-politics
all my religious texts and study materials
and yes i have even retaken up my childhood hobby of collecting Marvel/DC & now Darkhorse comic books again in Digital CBR format. for my Kindle fire.

My current reading list
( Counting newly hoarded comics books), is years long and I can carry it ALL on my person if the need arose.

This is the future I had hoped to live to see as a child

LONG LIVE ...THE TREES!!!

[FatDog]

I do bemoan the loss of browsing through the shelves and both discovering new authors or striking up conversations with fellow browsers and trading favorite books.

But many times I have gone looking for a series of books to find only the most recent 2-3 titles from an author in stock. The eBook from Amazon/BarnsNNoble has zero stocking cost or shelf cost so they can have the entire catalog from an author available for years.

I do miss the joy of a $5.99 hardback found on the clearance table. But I dont miss the finding shelf space or boxing of old books, paying for storage or hunting for a title I know I read a few years ago...

Change is upsetting. But we are better off.

[Chi Cygni]

I'm an expat and the only good source of books here is internet. Ok, I could buy a book in my language in a food shop but selection is very limited of what may interest me, as is space on the shelves. I nonetheless bought a few on paper and haven't read them yet. I only buy paper books for my little son.
But, I would have never bought an ereader I guess if I didn't leave my country. I wouldn't see the need or could afford it. I would have still used bookstores - which I miss sometimes. But I remember, here in Belgium in 2009 how much I missed reading... an ereader was God sent. Even libraries here had limited choice of what I could read. And a weekly magazine every Friday wasn't enough (now I can read it on ipad)
Speaking of online shopping I dread now going to big stores. Oh the noise, crowds and infinite choice! All that trying on, entire day lost, and tiredness afterwards. I buy lots of clothes online, in peace of mind and comfortably stretched on the sofa. I must be a weird woman, not to like going shopping anymore. Shoes I buy in person, several pairs in one go.
I'm so into online shopping that today I considered buying a micro usb to usb cable from amazon.uk as opposed to going into town (40 min to get there) to search for it in big shopping centre. Why, click and have it delivered to my door for approximately the same price... and extra excitement when there is something as oposed to bills in the mailbox.

[DrNefario]

My current Agatha Christie fad has got me haunting charity shops and second-hand bookshops again. She's popular enough that I'm often likely to find something, and I am simply not going to pay agency ebook prices for a story I've probably already seen on tv. It also seems to be the case with Christie that there are omnibus editions in paperback that aren't available as ebooks and are better value even before discounting.

I bought three more Poirots today. I should probably read some of them soon.

[Chi Cygni]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I bought three more Poirots today. I should probably read some of them soon.

Funny that. I'm going through my seventh Poirot today. Bought one yesterday and finished in 1 day. Currently (no7) it is the Murder of Roger Ackroyd. (Cat among the pigeons was not good)

[speakingtohe]

I stopped buying fiction in bookstores (except for airport ones) in 1994. My shelves were stacked 3 deep with reference and cook books, and I had boxes of paperbacks.

Used bookstores were going out of business or had to charge pretty high prices (typically a 9.95 book would cost around $6.00 after a trade in not counting what I paid for the books I traded in) and my local small library branch had a better selection.

I tried several times to order books from new bookstores, both small and large and never actually got one. And I did check often. Order was not entered, order came in and they put it on the shelves etc. etc.


So no I don't miss bookstores as I got out of the habit of going to them, but I still hope they manage to stay in business.

Helen

[Tony1988]

As long as stories do not cease to have social interaction in them as well I should be ok.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

I didn't leave them, they left me.

In my case, literally.
When Borders imploded it left me without a general purpose bookstore within a hundred mile radius. Plenty of religious and educational/college bookstores but no general bookstores. And the department stores and pharmacies if ever get a hankering for a "bestseller".

Borders killed the indies and then commited suicide.

For print: my option is Amazon.
For ebooks: Kindle, Baen, Fictionwise, and author web sites.
They suffice.

[Rumpelteazer]

For at least 10 years I've not had a good bookstore experience in my city. The biggest bookstore in town decided on a new concept and removed about half of their bookcases in favour of tables. This might look nicer but at the same time their selection was decreased. Since I mostly read English books and their English section became noticeably smaller (mostly classics and popular fiction, which I'd already read or was not interested in). Also, their personnel doesn't/didn't have much knowledge about their stock: I once asked where I could find their Discworld selection and was told they didn't have any, only to find almost a full bookcase of Discworld books myself two minutes later.

The last straw was then, just before I got an ereader, I wanted to start the Jaz Parks series, I had seen several books of that series in stock and went to get the first in the series. After I couldn't find it I asked and after looking it up I was told they had the whole series in stock except for the first two books which they never had had in stock! When I asked if I could order the first book I was told it would take very long (two to three weeks) and was asked if I would really pick it up when it arrived. I offered to pay up front, but that wasn't possible. In the end I ordered it online. I've only been back to buy travel books and gifts.

The only bookstore that I can spend hours in is the American Book Centre, which has shops in Amsterdam and The Hague, especially their Amsterdam store I love.

Getting an ereader (first a Sony, now a Kindle) has made getting books I like a lot easier and faster.

[JoHunt]

Originally Posted by djulian

But I kind of miss the thrill of the hunt, so to speak. I miss disappearing into the stacks at a used bookstore and resurfacing with a nicely-priced copy of Kierkegaard or P.D. James or Tolstoy or some other author of interest. And an added bonus, I knew my dinner guests would see these books on my bookshelves and know something about me--that I like philosophy and mystery and Russian literature. And I would smile and organize my shelves at home and feel fairly well-satisfied in my books. This doesn't happen anymore.

Not exactly the same, but hunting on the internet can result in finding wonderful books. I'm always delighted when I find a title that most likely would not be available at a new bookseller or at used bookstores in my area.

Amazon is a treasure trove for hard to find and out of print books.

[Kumabjorn]

When I was a little girl a good friend of the family ran a record store down the street. I used to go there, during day time there were few customers, and I would always get a soda and then I could spend hours listening to new records. (ahh, the benefits of being a cute little girl). I wouldn't say that the man running the store was a Luddite, but he was reluctant to stock CDs, so I continued listening to vinyl records on these "earphones" that looked like a vintage phone handset in an off-white that was slowly turning brown from all the nicotine stained fingers holding them. The CD section gradually grew and one day there were no LPs and the handsets looked oddly out of place.

I missed those records with their psychedelic covers and the inserts. The CDs just didn't have that feeling. Then one day I realized that the selection was at least twice as large since they didn't take up as much space. There was only one jewel case in the rack, so you had to go to the counter and ask for the disc if you wanted to listen to it. This always gave you the opportunity to chat for a little while, beside I now had an allowance and reached that age where you're convinced music will change the world, so every now and then I also bought something.

Then came MP3s and Napster, and if it is one thing the Swedes are apt at, it is pirating (we even have a Pirate Party with seats in the EU parliament) so in no time his store was back to selling LPs, sadly though I wasn't into them anymore and the few times I've been in there, the customers seem, shall we say, eclectic, they also smells funny. He doesn't look happy at all, and sales are nothing like they used to, there is now a corner for used comics as well.

So I've been through some changes. Hence, when bookstores turned into bestseller outlets, I didn't miss the experience at all. I'm perfectly happy browsing my usual hangouts for eBooks. I do miss the conversations you could have there, but hey, that is what MR is for.