I have to say that even though I’m a great fan of the Kindle, nothing – and I repeat, nothing – beats being inside an actual bookstore and browsing for books there. Bookstores should continue to exist. And used book stores even more so. The very idea that a book passes from one person to another and acquires a second or a third life is magical.
5 responses to “Bookstores Versus the Kindle”
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I also love both bookstores and my Kindle. I used to love to go to Borders and Barnes and Noble. But sometime in the 90s (maybe even earlier) the book industry changed from being focused on publishing books to selling books. Which means in this crass culture they started focusing on flashy imitations of other best-sellers, gimmicks, and so on, and forgot about things like stories. Borders went down the tubes and I know why: every time I went into their store in the latter days I saw more and more plastic toys, calendars, dvds and cds, ugly or loud “coffee table” books, “best sellers” that were just imitations of each other to the point of plagiarism, multiple copies of just a few billionaire authors, and magazines — and less and less actual books. Also, the price of books went up and up.
One thing we have here is the Green Valley Book Fair. That’s a kind of close-out warehouse for all kinds of books that is only open part of the year. It’s great — I’ve gotten tons of books there, obscure stuff that maybe passed through a big box bookstore at the speed of light before being sent out to be remaindered. All sorts of classics and foreign novels as well. It just opened again this past weekend so I must go soon.
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I agree with you completely, Twisted Spinster. Borders has become a huge disappointment a while before going out of business. The Books-a-Million which we now have where the local Borders used to be has an even bigger section selling Bibles, one weirder than the other. And then there is a plethora of very weird parenting books. We are a college town but our philosophy section sells Dr. Phil’s books!!!
You are a very profound person, and I’m happy that you comment on my blog.
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Oh God, I had one of those Books-A-Million stores near me when I lived in Orlando, and it sucked. Most of their Christian literature was the crappy trashy kind (think those “Left Behind” novels and books by those “Christian” cable tv celebrities). They did carry a lot of stuff by C.S. Lewis though I don’t think he’d have appreciated being on a shelf next to the likes of Rick Warren and the rest of the hucksters. The rest of their stuff was the usual coffee table books, toys, and for some reason they had a really big section devoted to coin collecting. *I don’t know either.* Also their coffee was terrible. They have a store in a town a few miles over from where I now live, but I refuse to visit it. Fortunately I have the internet and if I really need an indie book jones I can always drive over to Charlottesville though it’s an hour away over the scary mountains (not that scary actually, I’m just still not used to ground that isn’t perfectly flat even after almost three years living here).
Re me being profound: aw, :blush: Thanks!
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Oh yes, I love a decent bookshop… my little town only has one chain bookstore, but it also has three second hand book shops and seven charity shops with book sections worth a search and still has a few independent tea shops, so it’s still possible to have a nice long browse. Sadly though no decent ‘intellectual’ bookshop (one with philosophy, history adn science other than Dr Phil, Simon Schama and Brian Cox!). I was spoilt rotten as an undergrad and I really miss those shops!
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I loved this post, even though I only got to commenting now. I agree. There is nothing better than browsing for books and sipping on a nice cup of some coffee creation, with a tastey dessert–not always necessary, but one can dream. I usually make a point of visiting bookstores, especially if they are independent when visiting cities, like Powell’s in Portland. I’m in heaven…simply heaven.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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