Sign of the Times (1 Viewer)

[jazzeum]

About ten years ago or so, a bookstore opened in the town next to mine and they used to get pretty good things and had a good non-fiction section. Lately, I noticed it seemed to be getting thinner, not as well stocked as used to be.

Well, today, I had to run an errand and so I stopped at the bookstore. They are going out of business. The owner told me the profits weren't as good as they used to be and the lease was up for renewal so they decided to call it a day.

A real shame. They used to have a lot of authors come and give talks about their books and I would try to support them whenever I could.

Unfortunately, when you sell your books at retail and you have Barnes & Noble, Amazon, online sellers selling books at a discount and people using electric readers (Kindles), it's just very hard to compete.

I never thought they would go out of business but in today's climate for books, it's just not easy.

 

[Rob]

About ten years ago or so, a bookstore opened in the town next to mine and they used to get pretty good things and had a good non-fiction section. Lately, I noticed it seemed to be getting thinner, not as well stocked as used to be.

Well, today, I had to run an errand and so I stopped at the bookstore. They are going out of business. The owner told me the profits weren't as good as they used to be and the lease was up for renewal so they decided to call it a day.

A real shame. They used to have a lot of authors come and give talks about their books and I would try to support them whenever I could.

Unfortunately, when you sell your books at retail and you have Barnes & Noble, Amazon, online sellers selling books at a discount and people using electric readers (Kindles), it's just very hard to compete.

I never thought they would go out of business but in today's climate for books, it's just not easy.

Couldn't agree more Brad, more and more independent book shops are going under simply because they cannot compete with online offers including free delivery. Our local bookshop closed last year, it was not surprising as whenever in town we rarely saw anyone in there. But on the other hand in this time of financial worry who is going to buy a book from a shop that they can get for five or more pounds cheaper online and with no postage???

It's very sad to see
Rob

 

[marco55]

Our bookstore at our mall shut down a couple of years ago.Really miss going in there and looking around.
Mark

 

[Combat]

I don't think the e-book will ever make the traditional book entirely obsolete, but it's going to be increasingly difficult to compete with a technology that can make available almost any book ever written within a matter of seconds. No bookstore can compete with that. I do prefer a traditional book if it has lots of pictures or maps. There may be certain niche markets where the independent bookstore can prosper, but not as a general bookstore.

 

[lancer]

A real hot-button topic with me. The decline of the small business, or even large chain, book store. It is very sad. The small brick and mortar bookstores I used to frequent are ALL gone. I'm not talking about 1 or 2 stores, I'm talking about some 40+ stores. I used to have 11 bookshops within 30 minutes drive, now there is 1. Bookshops were my favorite place to go but things change and that era is over. Nothing like a real book or newspaper in your hands. I still read both. I do NO reading off of e-books. I'm proud of my real book library, even if, like the dinosaurs, the book with paper pages that actually must be hand-turned, someday dies out. That will be a sad day for us all. -- Al

 

[marco55]

A real hot-button topic with me. The decline of the small business, or even large chain, book store. It is very sad. The small brick and mortar bookstores I used to frequent are ALL gone. I'm not talking about 1 or 2 stores, I'm talking about some 40+ stores. I used to have 11 bookshops within 30 minutes drive, now there is 1. Bookshops were my favorite place to go but things change and that era is over. Nothing like a real book or newspaper in your hands. I still read both. I do NO reading off of e-books. I'm proud of my real book library, even if, like the dinosaurs, the book with paper pages that actually must be hand-turned, someday dies out. That will be a sad day for us all. -- Al

I agree 100%.
Mark

 

[Toy Soldier Brigade]

I'm not a fan of eBooks. I prefer a real book. I like how real books look displayed on a shelf. I do buy the majority of my books from Amazon though. I was killing some time in my local Barnes & Noble the other night while my wife shopped. I was looking at a woodworking book I wanted. Their copy was a little rough, so I scanned the bar code with my Amazon iPhone app. It was half the price plus free 2 day shipping. I clicked buy, and it was at my house in two days in pristine condition.

 

[Panzer ace]

I'm not a fan of eBooks. I prefer a real book. I like how real books look displayed on a shelf. I do buy the majority of my books from Amazon though. I was killing some time in my local Barnes & Noble the other night while my wife shopped. I was looking at a woodworking book I wanted. Their copy was a little rough, so I scanned the bar code with my Amazon iPhone app. It was half the price plus free 2 day shipping. I clicked buy, and it was at my house in two days in pristine condition.

While I appreciate Amazon's prices I am a man of instant gratification, therefore, most of the time if I can't have it right away I do not want it. Hence I get all of my books from Barnes and Noble.

 

[King & Country]

Hi Guys,

Brad, “Jazzeum” brings up a very interesting thread…The demise of so many bookstores, large and small, is something to be sad about.

Like most of you I have a love of real, live, books! Books that you can pick up, touch, turn the pages, look at the pictures (if there are any) and simply enjoy the tactile experience of holding a piece of work that has taken countless hours to write, edit, print, bind and display for the enjoyment and/or education of others. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of people have been involved in producing this volume I hold in my hands.

Add to that my delight and pleasure in visiting and browsing in a well-run and well-stocked book shop. In my job I have the privilege to be able to travel to many places and, in lucky instances, stumble across a great book shop. I can and do spend a lot of happy hours in these places scouring the bookshelves and often discovering wonderful, unknown (at least to me) reference books of all descriptions that help me in my work for K&C.

At the same time you can also, sometimes, find long-out-of-print tomes that you’ve been looking for…forever. Or that you may even remember from your childhood.

Two of my all-time favorite bookshops are in London — FOYLES in Charing Cross Road and HATCHARD’S in Piccadilly. Both of these literary emporiums are an “Aladdin’s Cave” of great books! FOYLES means for me the “Military/History” section. Their variety is stupendous and I always leave with a ton of books under my arm (at least it feels like that). They also have a nice little café inhouse…I can recommend the carrot cake and a large coffee.

My other destination is HATCHARD’S…not so much for the military/history, although they do have a pretty good selection. My reason for going there is for the book signings. Hatchard’s often have the authors come to sign their work for the buyers. I’ve been lucky enough to pick up a signed “George MacDonald Fraser” (Flashman) for our friend Louis Badolato.

For myself I got…an “Anthony Beevor” Stalingrad… a “Max Hastings” Finest Years, Churchill as Warlord 1940-45 and several volumes of “Alan Bennett’s” novels and diaries.

I also got to meet “Miss Joan Collins” and get a signed copy of her autobiography!!! And no, she does not collect toy soldiers. But, lots of good, juicy Hollywood gossip.

Amazon and their ilk offer me nothing except cheap prices and a barren, literary experience. There’s a lot more to books and booksellers than just paying less! They are an endangered species and all of us who love real, live books should do our utmost to keep them…alive — Is that a small price to pay?

Best wishes and happy reading!

Andy C.​