When a Bookstore Closes, an Argument Ends

When a Bookstore Closes, an Argument Ends(newyorker.com)

29 points by powertry 11 years ago | 14 comments

Go read your e-book in a cafe, or go to the library. Problem solved. Argument ended and won.

Chevalier 11 years ago | |

I, too, am a member of the ebook master race. As a passionate and frequent reader, I'm awed by the revolution in portability, quality, availability provided by ebooks.

...but I can also afford them. When I was a kid, I spent every day in the local bookstore sitting on the floor, reading everything I could get my hands on. (Ironically, this was only possible at the larger bookstores and chains; the smaller indie types for which everyone waxes nostalgic would never allow it, though I hardly blame them.) My mom shares my love of literature, and bought every book I ever requested, but she could never have afforded a tenth of the in-store books I devoured.

Starbucks and ebooks are huge improvements from paper warehouses, but I wonder what would happen if I were born today and paper book stores vanished from the world. Libraries don't necessarily fill the same niche, in terms of the quality of both the branches and their clientele. The public library where I grew up was in a dangerous area, filled with junkies and surrounded by gangsters, and I just wouldn't have had the same opportunities to read unmolested as I did at bookstores.

Though now that I'm re-investigating public libraries, I've been nothing but impressed by their quality. Outside of rough neighborhoods and the constant threat of closure, public libraries may be the best possible opportunities for modern kids.

octatoan 11 years ago | | |

It's not very nice to casually use that phrase in your first line, you know. :)

soapdog 11 years ago | |

don't think I agree with this. The environment of a bookshop invites smalltalk around titles and lookers. On a cafe people are much less inclined to such behavior and libraries, imho, attract a different crowd. At least where I am from, they tend to be used for education related work assignments and tend to be very quiet.

I remember more than ten years ago, driving with my father for 40 minutes at 2:00 AM to go to a 24/7 bookstore that had a great coffee. We would do that often, specially in the odd hours where it was not as crowded and the experience much more enjoyable. I started reading "Dune" and "Tao Te King" in there while drinking tea of coffee and talking to random people I never met again. Now, that place is a clothes store, there is no nice bookstores in my city anymore. I don't believe that reading on a kindle or similar device on a coffee shop will have the same effect but then, it might just all be nostalgia...

niels_olson 11 years ago | | |

There seems to me to be a general problem of too many books. It makes me a little sick to say that, but I think it's true. We built a Little Free Library (1) and we get way more books than we have room for. We throw away complete crap (e.g., anything from a Fox News author) and donate a Ikea bag (2) full to Goodwill about once a month. It's like instead of sharing books, we've become a sink for the neighborhood's infinite sources of books.

I personally own a lot of books. Within the professons, I think it's safe to say medicine is known for having a lot of books; within medicine, pathologists are known for having a lot of books; among the pathology residents, I'm known for having a lot of books.

Much like the rug seller becomes a collector of the best rugs, we are becoming keepers of an insane library. I anticipate our special collections will eventually beat the local public library's.

The point is: people are consuming a huge number of books. And shedding some of them. Just the number they shed is overwhelming.

The house behind us is up for sale. I wonder if I should approach the buyers (some investors) about converting it to a book cafe?

(1) http://littlefreelibrary.org/

(2) https://www.google.com/search?q=ikea+shopping+bag

chriogenix 11 years ago | | |

same thing happened in my city(honolulu). where there was once a very thriving barnes and noble there is now a Ross dress for less(discount clothing). its sad really. There's only 1 book store left in a metropolitan area with more than 1M people.

dmourati 11 years ago | |

He said that libraries in France are not usually open to the public. Read the article, please, before being so flip.

jpollock 11 years ago | | |

Libraries in Paris seem to have pretty good hours:

http://bibliotheques.equipement.paris.fr/tousleshoraires

12-7PM Saturdays, 10AM-5PM, 10AM-6PM. I seem to remember that as being the same as commercial hours?

walterbell 11 years ago |

We need more analysis of "uncanny valley" boundaries between F2F discovery and atomized collaborative filtering. E.g. Amazon reviews can be better than algo recommendations for book discovery. From the article:

"By atomizing our experience to the point of alienation—or, at best, by creating substitutes for common experience (“you might also like…” lists, Twitter exchanges instead of face-to-face conversations)—we lose the common thread of civil life ... Books are not just other luxury items to be shopped for. They are the levers of our consciousness."

protomyth 11 years ago | |

"By atomizing our experience to the point of alienation—or, at best, by creating substitutes for common experience"

I don't know much about the social life in France, but in the US we've done this with the last couple of generations independent of computers and in response to, unjustified statistically, fear. We plan our children's activities and kill opportunities for exploration and organic growth. We lock people up who leave their kids to run as previous generations because we need to make everything safe.

Amazon does not lead, we were already there and they filled a need. Our common thread is planned, isolated, micro-metered, and safe.

atdt 11 years ago |

> I knew that it would be closing for good, though I was surprised to find that its fermeture definitive was to be this week, on Saturday, June 14th.

Saturday is the 13th. I know it's a minor detail, but when I see something like that, I can't help but stop dead in my tracks and wonder if anyone took the time to give this a cursory once-over before publication.