Are Bookstore On The Way Out

[Guest FourAces]

Had somebody asked me 20 years ago if we would ever see Tower Records or any mega chain close I would have asked them to share their drugs. We all know the reality now that downloads have put the record stores out of business .. which to me is a shame. I miss the days of spending an hour or so checking out all the cool new and old selections.

Most recently we are seeing the final days of the DVD store. Blockbuster can barely open its doors and the mom and pop stores have vanished.

Now I am feeling in the next several years bookstores will disappear too. Amazon and Barnes and Noble have both reported that downloads have outsold physical books the past several months. With e-readers being a very hot holiday gift this season those download numbers will increase.

What do you guys think. Are the days of walking the isles looking for that special book about over?

[Guest zipperzone]

I certainly hope not. Nothing can replace, for me anyway, the feel and smell of a good bookstore. E-readers may be fine for some books, such as fiction & biography but I can't imagine reading art books or books on architecture or design on a small screen,

[BiBottomBoy]

There will always be book stores.

Not everyone can afford Internet access or an expensive e-reader.

[Lucky]

There will always be book stores.

Not everyone can afford Internet access or an expensive e-reader.

I doubt the accuracy of this remark as the cost of a few books pays for the kindle, then the e-books are much cheaper than the paper books.

But I mourn the loss of the bookstore as I love spending time there with all of those books full of promise and the places they can take me.

[BiBottomBoy]

I just paid 270 dollars to buy a kindle as a christmas present for one of my family members.

My local bookshop sells used books for a euro each.

That's more than "a few books" equalling the cost of a kindle.

[RA1]

I, too, mourn the loss of bookstores but my expectations are increased by a report that the "top" magazines are doing well in their printed forms. A comeback that might not have been expected.

I fear that we are becoming a world of lessening expectations regarding the printed word and will be "unduly" influenced by the blog or electronically dissemanted "word". So sorry, but, so be it.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest FourAces]

I certainly hope not. Nothing can replace, for me anyway, the feel and smell of a good bookstore.

Zip I used to feel the same way about record stores.

To a lessor extent I do feel the same way about bookstores. I like to crack open a new book flip through the pages just smell it, explore it and feel the crispness. Hard to do that on a e-reader

[Guest FourAces]

I just paid 270 dollars to buy a kindle as a christmas present for one of my family members.

My local bookshop sells used books for a euro each.

That's more than "a few books" equalling the cost of a kindle.

Maybe that is a European price? One of the top selling Kindles right now is $189us.

Also, you do not need your own Internet connection as long as you have WiFi access you are good to go. Most Kindle books and Nook books sell for $9.99. The same book in hardcover can be around $25.

Lastly there are very inexpensive e-readers out there and you can use the Kindle desktop and cell phone versions for free no need to buy anything but the books.

[TotallyOz]

I hope we always have great bookstores. But, I have not bought one in years and everything I buy now is on the Kindle.

[BiBottomBoy]

Wow.

I still buy three or four books a week from my local bookstore.

[JKane]

I came to the conclusion that places like Borders and B&N were doomed when I went to my local B&N and they were shilling the Nook practically in the doorway. I wanted to ask the employees and manager what in the world they thought could come from that other than losing all their customers...

Places like Half Price Books (huge chain of used and clearance books, inexplicably don't have anything like it in SoCal) will probably hold on for quite a while though.

[Guest CharliePS]

Had somebody asked me 20 years ago if we would ever see Tower Records or any mega chain close I would have asked them to share their drugs. We all know the reality now that downloads have put the record stores out of business .. which to me is a shame. I miss the days of spending an hour or so checking out all the cool new and old selections.

Most recently we are seeing the final days of the DVD store. Blockbuster can barely open its doors and the mom and pop stores have vanished.

Now I am feeling in the next several years bookstores will disappear too. Amazon and Barnes and Noble have both reported that downloads have outsold physical books the past several months. With e-readers being a very hot holiday gift this season those download numbers will increase.

What do you guys think. Are the days of walking the isles looking for that special book about over?

I can't imagine bookstores ever completely disappearing, because there are so many kinds of books that will not be digitalized effectively or economically: very specialized subjects, incunabula, photo books, art books, large format books, etc. Who's going to put a Kindle on the coffee table? Is every child in the family going to have his own Nook? What is the market for last year's almanac?

Also, let's not forget all the other people who will be put out of business if books and bookstores are closed: the printers, warehousers, distributors, etc., who supply the product. Oh, and bookshelf makers. And what happens to physical libraries when all information is accessed from home?

I'm not sure I want to live in such a world. The one advantage for me of electronic books is

freeing up of storage space. I could live in a smaller house if I didn't have hundreds of feet of shelves to hold the three thousand books I own.

[MsGuy]

I'm already thinking of buying myself one of those reader thingie's for X-mas. With technophobes like me starting to cave, bookstores aren't long for this world.

I think the thing I'll miss most is wandering around and picking up a book I never would have considered reading, didn't know existed, about something I never imagined I'd be interested in. Somehow an algorithm telling me "people who liked this also liked that" won't be quite the same.

[TampaYankee]

There will always be book stores.

Not everyone can afford Internet access or an expensive e-reader.

You'll know when the bookstore is about to become extinct when the price of e-readers drops to little more than shipping and handling. Anybody knows... anybody... that the money in a system is always in the software, not the hardware. If you want to sell electronic books big time then you get the e-readers out to everyone. You do that by dropping the cost of the hardware. As long as companies try to make money off the hardware, you know it is still a novelty.

[BiBottomBoy]

And at these prices they are certainly focusing their profit point on the hardware.

[lookin]

A Booklover's San Francisco

[Guest CharliePS]

A Booklover's San Francisco

Lookin, thanks for the link. Now I know what to do the next time I visit SF.

[Guest NeedSome]

I fear that we are becoming a world of lessening expectations regarding the printed word and will be "unduly" influenced by the blog or electronically dissemanted "word". So sorry, but, so be it.

Best regards,

RA1

The dumbification of America. I suspect that most people get the majority of their news from tv, radio, and the internet. And all soundbytes, which is why the level of discourse has dropped so much in the last ten years. I rarely argue politics anymore. I did when I was younger. But now it seems like it's difficult to have any sort of meaningful conversation about complicated topics because people base their entire beliefs on what they hear in 30 second CNN clips (or worse, the 10 second quips from politicians or the uninformed opinions of basement dwelling bloggers whose mothers still make them lunch with the crusts cut off their PBJ sandwiches).

Re: the bookstores. I love buying books. Not just because I love the feel of them and how they smell, but because one of my true joys is reading a book and then giving it away to someone that I know will enjoy it and value it. I think it was Charlie that said he has 3000 books in his house. I would gauge my collection much smaller, maybe 500, but I've given away at least double that amount of books over the last 20 years.

[BigK]

Maybe that is a European price? One of the top selling Kindles right now is $189us.

Also, you do not need your own Internet connection as long as you have WiFi access you are good to go. Most Kindle books and Nook books sell for $9.99. The same book in hardcover can be around $25.

Lastly there are very inexpensive e-readers out there and you can use the Kindle desktop and cell phone versions for free no need to buy anything but the books.

But who pays full retail these days for Hardcovers. I think most hard cover novels can be purchased from $16 - $20.

[BiBottomBoy]

Even less really if you shop around the Internet.