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Originally Posted by Blossom
I have about 8 boxes of books in storage. Only one bookshelf in my tiny apartment. I can't stay away from library sales. I mean a bag of books for $2 is just too tempting. We are talking 10 to 15 books in a bag. They are paperbacks but still...
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I long ago decided that
buying books and
reading them were separate and distinct pleasures, and that I wouldn't feel guilty about
buying six books and finding time to
read two. It's a sophistry, but it works for me...
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I haven't been to B&N in a long time even though there is one just down the street. Last time I went to one was Tennessee. They had marked up all books by $1 to $2. I found the books I wanted then went home and ordered them on Amazon.
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There's a B&N superstore in walking distance of me. Four floors covering half a city block. I haven't been there is a while.
Arguably worse, not much farther away is
the Strand, which advertises
18 miles of new, used, and rare books, and
isn't exaggerating. I haven't been there in a while either.
But the practice of looking at books in a brick and mortar store, then ordering them from Amazon is one of the things that has dramatically shrunk the number of bookstores. The independent bookstore is an endangered species because it can't match the prices of big chains like B&N, B&N is struggling because it can't match the prices of places like CostCo and Sam's Club (which sell truckloads of books as well as everything else), and
everyone is under pressure from Amazon. Books are fungible commodities. It's the same book, regardless of where you get it. So the purchase decision generally devolves to price.
The indie bookstores I know in NYC are specialty stores serving niche markets - photography, travel, and Juvenile/YA - with stuff in their areas you just won't find elsewhere.
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Hubby only read to book 5 on Harry Potter. He said it got too dark after that. I read them all and listened to them all. We have tried to get him into books after that but there just hasn't been any fiction he found enjoyable. He even bought a few action novels and gave up after one chapter. He is a big TV/Movie watcher though. I'm not. I prefer to read or listen to an audiobook.
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I prefer reading too. There was a post from a VP at Facebook talking about the direction in which they are going, which is increasingly mobile and video, and predicting that text would go away. Maybe for the folks the VP encounters, but not for the rest. I can
read much faster than I can
watch, and I'm already annoyed by the increasing tendency of tech sites to use instructional videos
instead of simple written instructions. Both, please. There are times when video is extremely effective, but if you just need to Look Stuff Up, it's a fail. I don't have the time, and generally don't have the need to sit through a video to find out what I need to know.
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Dennis