rss feedI can save them.
I hope a brick and mortar bookstore come across this post, because it’s free advice. Maybe you’ve already thought about this, but give it a chance.
I’m allow you to steal it because I have no capital with which to build.
Also, I haven’t updated my blog in a bit, so here’s a random thought:
With a little bit of technology, some seed capital and a bit of faith, I can see brick and mortar bookstores staying alive if they can embrace e-books rather than shun them.
I state this because the digital realm must also embrace the brick and mortar stores in a joint effort.
Imagine if you will, the “inbetweeners”. These are the folks who are new recipients of an e-reader, and there are more and more everyday. They’re anxious to convert for any number of reasons, however, they’re still bound (pardon the pun) to paper because it’s all they’ve ever known.
I consider myself one of these people but I still adore bookstores and it saddens me when they fade one by one from my city. I peruse the shelves of the remaining stores, but I don’t buy anything because I’ve committed myself to the new technology to save paper not to mention the storage issues that come with books.
Why can’t I peruse a brick and mortar, hold the the book, touch the book, read a few pages and then press a sensor on the book to send my purchase to my e-reader via the stores in house database?
I’ve suddenly become a new type of customer.
One that stills enjoys the physicality of the books but not the ability to maintain a library. Look over there, I’ve purchased a cup of coffee and now I’m sitting in a comfy chair reading my new e-book I’ve just purchased. It’s a pleasant evening out away from the house to enjoy a past time that’s becoming extinct.
If the digital realm and the brick and mortar bookstore can find a place together, we’d be able to protect this dying tradition. Books will never complete go away, but the industry is ailing. This could save them.
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I like your idea! I, too, like love both the idea of saving paper and browsing for reading material.
I have a theory that one of the reasons the paper bookstore is dying is that readers have too many choices. You walk into one of the big chain stores and there is a bewildering array of choices. It’s very easy to be re paralyzed by indecision.
Let’s say you finally decide on one of those books, though. You take it home and read it. What are the chances that someone you know has read that book recently? Pretty small, these days. Then you have no one with whom to discuss the book you’ve just read–which is a lot of the fun for me. Thankfully, you can almost always find someone on line in some forum to discuss it with, but it’s not the same.
Compare this with movies. You look through your local Cinemaclock website or the newspapers in most cities, and the choices are in the dozens, not the tens of thousands. Much easier to make a decision.
And, once you do make your choice, chances are that one of your movie-going pals will have gone, too (if you didn’t actually attend the movie with one). You can talk about it. There will be many current reviews and discussions about the movie on line. It’s a phenomenon.
I believe that’s why movies get more of a cultural buzz than books these days–because there are a limited number of them available at any one time in theatres!
A physical bookstore such as you’re describing might bring into focus a limited number of titles that would attract more attention to those titles.