Quote:
Originally Posted by queentess
The internet is killing the bookstore. Physical stores have limited space, which means limited titles. OR I can go to Amazon and order absolutely anything, and usually cheaper. When bookstores started to lose money, they began subsidizing their book sales with miscellaneous junk: trinkets, dvds, cds, cups of coffee... and that may be fine for the average person, but that drove me to Amazon even more because all those other things meant even less room for books. (And why on earth did they start carrying dvds and cds when everything was going digital???)
I essentially stopped shopping locally when I could never find the book I wanted (as 'local' as B&N and Borders can be considered...). I typically only buy two types of books in paper format: crafty books (knit, crochet, etc) and cookbooks. It's much faster to get these books from my library or Amazon than to special order them from Borders or B&N.
Bookstores need to find a way to 1. carry the titles I want and 2. give me access to ebooks. I can imagine a store that has 1-2 copies of, say, one million different books. Let people browse the physical books, then let them purchase the ebook right there. Maybe it's as simple as scanning the book somewhere and telling the computer to send this book to that device. Of course, in order to make this truly effective, DRM will have to fall by the wayside at some point... otherwise bookstore survival will become all about the device rather than the book.
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Yeah. I have a used bookstore as well as a Books A Million and a Barnes & Noble within easy drive (10-20 min). For now, there are 2 Borders and a Barnes and Noble in the city as well as a couple of independent bookstores and some very cook used bookstores in the city 45 min-1 hr away. The Borders are closing, though.
There used to be an independent bookstore run by Walker Percy's wife called the Kumquat within walking distance of where I grew up. It closed many years ago. Another independent bookstore tried to open on the same block but it had no stock!
I can go into any of the big, B-name bookstores and find something. I admit to buying from Amazon sometimes, though, especially if I find a good deal on a used hardcover through them. I have a friend who lives about an hour south of Jackson, MS. There is literally nothing there. She has to drive 30 minutes just to get to a Wal-Mart. A regular Wal-Mart, mind you, not a Super, much less a bookstore. She relies on Amazon.
As to libraries being obsolete due to Overdrive, yes, as someone said, there are areas without good Internet access but, even in the areas that do, not everyone can afford a home connection, let alone a WiFi router. They could go to a McDonalds, which now offers WiFi with their device, I suppose, but they probably don't have their own computer, either, and I have to hook my Kobo up to my computer to get Overdrive books on it. A lot of people use the computer lab in my library because they don't have a computer or Internet at home. I can do everything on Overdrive and not go to the physical library if I have to, but some can't.