Are bookstores still worth fighting for?

Alexander Turcic · 07-19-2013, 06:36 PM

E-book sales are skyrocketing and we've all seen the disruptive impact this has on established businesses. There's no telling if bookstores will survive for another few years, but author Stephen Booth suggests that it's important we continue to support them:

Quote:

If print books were to disappear, the sad fact is that I wouldn't be sitting in a bookshop ready to sign your Kindle when a new book came out. There wouldn't even be a bookshop for me to sit in.

So if, like me, you want to see books flourishing in all their forms, it's vital to support the booksellers who continue to be the mainstay of the publishing business.

And remember – bookshops pay their taxes too!

Do we need our local bookshops and should we try to support them, or have they simply outlived their usefulness? What do you think?

tubemonkey · 07-19-2013, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Do we need our local bookshops and should we try to support them, or have they simply outlived their usefulness? What do you think?

I don't need them. I'm completely digital. I feel the same way about libraries.

That said, I won't actively campaign to eliminate either. I'll just sit back and let technology take its course. Eventually, like all good dinosaurs, they'll become a used-to-be.

WT Sharpe · 07-19-2013, 07:22 PM

That is such a sad picture. I'm going to have to start spending time in our local bookstores again—the ones we have left, that is.

tubemonkey · 07-19-2013, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

That is such a sad picture. I'm going to have to start spending time in our local bookstores again—the ones we have left, that is.

Replace the shelves with a bank of servers and all is well again

medard · 07-19-2013, 08:08 PM

I'm quite sure we'll always have bookstores. Most people still prefer printed books. Maybe we'll loose some chain stores, but that doesn't really matter. (Well, for the employees it does matter.) Books are essential for a cultivated environment.

BWinmill · 07-19-2013, 08:50 PM

I suspect that the nature of bookstores will change, but that they'll still be around.

One thing that people need to remember is that ebooks only work well for certain types of publications or for audiences that access those publications in a particular way. (Example: novels work well since they are easy to format for everything from mobile phones and tablets to ereaders. Technical publications only work well on tablets or computers, which only works well for a subset of the population.)

Specialist bookstores will probably become a larger part of the market. General bookstores will probably shift towards best sellers, non-fiction, and children's books.

Apache · 07-19-2013, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWinmill

I suspect that the nature of bookstores will change, but that they'll still be around.

They already have. The local Books a Million has allocated at least half of it's square footage to non book inventory.
Apache

Lynx-lynx · 07-19-2013, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

Do we need our local bookshops and should we try to support them, or have they simply outlived their usefulness? What do you think?

+ 1 in favour of continuing to support bookstores and paper books

+ 1 in favour of public libraries carrying both the paper and ebook versions of all the books that they (the library) carry.

I will continue to buy the paper book versions of any text books that I require because an ebook just can't be manipulated the same way half as efficiently as a textbook with respect to marking text, writing in the margins and flipping between pages etc.

Also, books that I purchase for their pictures/drawings etc - definitely paper books only. Think art books, design and architecture styles etc. Ebooks can not do those books justice.

Istvan diVega · 07-19-2013, 09:40 PM

Theoretically I'd like to see bookstores survive and flourish, but in practice I won't do anything to help that happen. Like tubemonkey I'm pretty much all digital today and those few paper books I still buy I can't find in shops anyway.

Around here, likely in response to the digital age, the bookstores have all changed for the worse. A smaller selection of books, with a greater proportion being bestsellers and "light reading" and ever more gifts and pointless knick knacks cluttering the shelves and displays. The one positive change is the addition of cafès to a few of them. It doesn't make me buy any more books, but if the coffee is good I'll at least spend some money on that. And there's one that also does a mean home-made cheesecake...

Like Mr. Sharpe I actually find the slow, painful demise of the bookstore quite sad, but I think it is inevitable that it will largely be a thing of the past in two or three more decades. It will certainly linger on in a small way for very much longer than that, or even "forever", but the generation growing up today has no bias in favour of physical books (or music, or movies, or magazines, or...) and the sales of printed matter of all kinds will only continue to drop.

Quote:

Originally Posted by medard

I'm quite sure we'll always have bookstores. Most people still prefer printed books. ... Books are essential for a cultivated environment.

I really can't see it. In my experience, most people prefer printed books because they've never tried electronic books. Once they do, again in my (limited) experience most people are almost always near-instant converts.

speakingtohe · 07-19-2013, 10:41 PM

I am working with a 23 year old university student who is studying English Literature. She wants nothing to do with ebooks. More than 1/2 the people I see reading books are reading paper. Of course many of the people poking away quickly at their phones and tablets may just like to poke books while they read them.

I love ebooks and no longer want to read paper books, but get a nostalgic wanting feeling when I do go into a bookstore and see all the shiny covers.

Helen

Billi · 07-20-2013, 04:10 AM

I try to support my local bookstore, it has charme and a special atmosphere. I would be sad if it had to close, for the bookstore itself but for the street too. We don't need another bank or pharmacy or shoe shop or another chain there.

meeera · 07-20-2013, 04:32 AM

My local B&M bookstore's largely inaccessible, so no, I'm not fighting for it.

forsooth · 07-20-2013, 04:36 AM

Tomorrow I will receive a "paper" book but ordered from Amazon.

so 50% compliant to theme with that.

I do peruse books stores still.

Subscribe many "paper" magazines.

medard · 07-20-2013, 06:21 AM

Since printed books are still the vast majority of books published there is no need to visit a bookstore "to support them". If you'd like to visit a bookstore you should do that to get inspired with new books and ideas that you won't find online.

GeoffR · 07-20-2013, 07:14 AM

Somehow I feel I should support bookshops, they were important to me once, but I'm not sure it if matters anymore. I bought my e-reader at a bookshop, and that bookshop gets a commission on any ebooks I buy from Kobo (which is about half the ebooks I buy), so they are probably getting more money from me now than they did before I switched to ebooks.

But it is really authors and public libraries I want to support now, not bookshops.

07-20-2013, 04:36 AM	#13
forsooth tec montage Posts: 435 Karma: 544444445 Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: harsh unforgiving places Device: kindles, lenovo, chromebook, mobiles	Tomorrow I will receive a "paper" book but ordered from Amazon. so 50% compliant to theme with that. I do peruse books stores still. Subscribe many "paper" magazines. Last edited by forsooth; 07-20-2013 at 04:39 AM.

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07-19-2013, 07:22 PM	#3
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,073 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	That is such a sad picture. I'm going to have to start spending time in our local bookstores again—the ones we have left, that is.

07-19-2013, 08:08 PM	#5
medard Wizard Posts: 1,014 Karma: 5595784 Join Date: May 2012 Device: Electronic Paper	I'm quite sure we'll always have bookstores. Most people still prefer printed books. Maybe we'll loose some chain stores, but that doesn't really matter. (Well, for the employees it does matter.) Books are essential for a cultivated environment.

07-19-2013, 08:50 PM	#6
BWinmill Nameless Being	I suspect that the nature of bookstores will change, but that they'll still be around. One thing that people need to remember is that ebooks only work well for certain types of publications or for audiences that access those publications in a particular way. (Example: novels work well since they are easy to format for everything from mobile phones and tablets to ereaders. Technical publications only work well on tablets or computers, which only works well for a subset of the population.) Specialist bookstores will probably become a larger part of the market. General bookstores will probably shift towards best sellers, non-fiction, and children's books.

07-19-2013, 10:41 PM	#10
speakingtohe Wizard Posts: 4,812 Karma: 26912940 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: sony PRS-T1 and T3, Kobo Mini and Aura HD, Tablet	I am working with a 23 year old university student who is studying English Literature. She wants nothing to do with ebooks. More than 1/2 the people I see reading books are reading paper. Of course many of the people poking away quickly at their phones and tablets may just like to poke books while they read them. I love ebooks and no longer want to read paper books, but get a nostalgic wanting feeling when I do go into a bookstore and see all the shiny covers. Helen

07-20-2013, 04:10 AM	#11
Billi Wizard Posts: 3,388 Karma: 14190103 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Berlin Device: Cybook, iRex, PB, Onyx	I try to support my local bookstore, it has charme and a special atmosphere. I would be sad if it had to close, for the bookstore itself but for the street too. We don't need another bank or pharmacy or shoe shop or another chain there.

07-20-2013, 04:32 AM	#12
meeera Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,658 Karma: 66417824 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2, iPadMini4, iPad4, MBP; support other Kobo/Kindles	My local B&M bookstore's largely inaccessible, so no, I'm not fighting for it.

07-20-2013, 06:21 AM	#14
medard Wizard Posts: 1,014 Karma: 5595784 Join Date: May 2012 Device: Electronic Paper	Since printed books are still the vast majority of books published there is no need to visit a bookstore "to support them". If you'd like to visit a bookstore you should do that to get inspired with new books and ideas that you won't find online.

07-20-2013, 07:14 AM	#15
GeoffR Wizard Posts: 3,821 Karma: 19162882 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Te Riu-a-Māui Device: Kobo Glo	Somehow I feel I should support bookshops, they were important to me once, but I'm not sure it if matters anymore. I bought my e-reader at a bookshop, and that bookshop gets a commission on any ebooks I buy from Kobo (which is about half the ebooks I buy), so they are probably getting more money from me now than they did before I switched to ebooks. But it is really authors and public libraries I want to support now, not bookshops.