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I was in Borders the other day, trying book lights with my Kindle. Not wanting to open the packages myself, I had a supervisor helping me.
He told me that his biggest reason for not buying an eBook was the demise of the brick-and-mortar stores and how Amazon's efficiency took away the human factor...the very reason he's loved selling books for 30 years. He talked about how not that long ago there used to be several bookstores (small and chains) on the street...and now they are the only one. He said "I know its big box stores like this that are responsible but it doesn't mean I like it". To me, this is the downside of the whole cyber world we live in today..not just the book industry.
We agreed that to survive, bookstores should start partnering with the publishers and companies like Sony to sell eBooks that can be transferred on-site...to sell just the readers makes no sense.
One of my favorite things to do is browse through a bookstore. For that reason, I still make a point of buying from them. I hope they find a way to co-exist but I fear the bookstores will go the way of most record shops.
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