This story in SMH today: Minister predicts unhappy ending for bookshops. What do you think? With more and more people buying online are bookshops dead and gone? Will they become a boutique rarity?
It certainly is much easier to go online and order a book, but I personally only do this if I know the author and it is a book that I "need" (and I know that I will have trouble getting it locally). I love to peruse second hand bookstores but as a reality unfortunately I do not get to do this very often now.
We just recently by chance went into one of the Borders stores that is in the final stages of closing down, we don't often go past it in the last few years but it was always interesting to go in.
I'm sure if they do disappear that people will complain about them being gone even though if they do disappear it will be because of people not shopping there.
The advent of the CD was to kill the LP record (and to a great degree it did, yet record stores still exist) but when it comes to books, I feel it will take the end of all the current generations who grew up with 'paper' books and 'physical' shopping' to entirely rid the market of the need for a book store.
That being said, second hand books shops hold a unique place in the market. It would take a series on online 'secondhand book' stores to challenge the market slice held by all the little book shops in every town and city that sells used books.
It certainly is much easier to go online and order a book, but I personally only do this if I know the author and it is a book that I "need" (and I know that I will have trouble getting it locally). I love to peruse second hand bookstores but as a reality unfortunately I do not get to do this very often now.
ReplyDeleteWe just recently by chance went into one of the Borders stores that is in the final stages of closing down, we don't often go past it in the last few years but it was always interesting to go in.
I'm sure if they do disappear that people will complain about them being gone even though if they do disappear it will be because of people not shopping there.
The advent of the CD was to kill the LP record (and to a great degree it did, yet record stores still exist) but when it comes to books, I feel it will take the end of all the current generations who grew up with 'paper' books and 'physical' shopping' to entirely rid the market of the need for a book store.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, second hand books shops hold a unique place in the market.
It would take a series on online 'secondhand book' stores to challenge the market slice held by all the little book shops in every town and city that sells used books.