Quote:
Originally Posted by Connallmac
You have independent book shops left in Virginia? There hardly any here in Eastern Indiana, the large chains have already put paid to the vast majority of them around here. Hell, even used book shops around here have given way to chains like Half-Price Books. It was not quite so bad in Upstate NY when I last lived there, but that's been five years now and I think it was headed the same way when I moved here to the Mid-West, and I haven't seen much evidence otherwise on my trips back home.
|
There are very few left. Those that survive are almost all used book stores, and they are struggling. That's why I was careful to say that the rise in e-books has "
added to the increase in the number of neighborhood bookstores that are closing their doors." The rise of e-books is hardly solely responsible for the demise of the neighborhood bookstore. As I've said elsewhere, the first direct attack on mom and pop bookstores can no doubt be traced to the arrival of the big bookstore chains, but the overall decline of reading in the 20th century can most probably be traced to the advent of radio and later TV.