About 15 or so years ago I picked up a compilation of the “best” science fiction short stories and I just didn’t get most of them. If you were to ask me what a particular story was about I would have shrugged because I didn’t know what it was about. Not really. Most of the stories were well written in the sense that the authors could set up a scene, but what were they about? I had no idea.
I half remember someone asking Stephen King why so many adults enjoyed YA fiction. His answer was that they had a satisfying narrative.
There were more than 30 Borders stores in Australia, NZ and Singapore. They came in, worked hard to crush competing independent and local chains by applying a ruthless and unsustainable business model that cherished everything except books, an then they imploded, leaving all this collateral damage. May their executives all rot in hell.
For Barnes + Noble, if they recruit sensible staff who get to know their market and product, allowing them to respond by tweaking their stores into more attractive destinations is sensible. I’ve never been convinced that turning a bookstore into a cafe or wi-fi hub and hope that people buy books as well is going to generate turnover.
I’m a younger GenX as well, and while I’m an out-of-touch luddite, my wife is 14 years younger than me and in computer science. I have never seen her with an eBook, and she’s an avid reader (as am I).
Stuff I read off a screen just doesn’t seem to stick with me the same as when reading the same stuff off a book, so the dead tree version is a superior platform to me. I have heard many people say the same.
I saw a study somewhere saying stuff on a printed page was easier to remember than stuff on a screen, with recall rates perhaps thrice as high. I’m sure it depends on the person and material, but that’s a big difference if true.
I didn’t switch to an e-reader because I thought it provided a superior reading experience. I switched because at this point in my life I’ve accumulated enough junk and don’t want more books cluttering the house.
When Barnes & Noble arrived in Plano, Texas back in 1996 or 1997 it was a magical place. I was used to smaller bookstores like B. Dalton or Waldenbooks and B&N was an entirely different experience. They sold music, including a lot of classical that I liked at the time, their selection of books was crazy, it was like a library except I had to pay for the books, and they had their own coffee place called Starbucks. It would take me a little while to realize Starbucks was its own thing and not just a place at B&N.
I don’t go to B&N very often these days, not since I purchased a Kindle so many year ago. When I do go, it’s to look at their boardgames or maybe some educational toys for my nieces.
B&N doesn’t satisfy any of the criteria I’d consider when buying a book. There’s one close to me, and it just feels like a mall - brightly lit, with thousands of books, cards, games, stationery, pens, toys, puzzles, journals, Starbucks. Very few employees, always behind registers or Customer Service desks. Expensive.
I don’t read paper books anymore, but I do buy a lot of books as gifts, and I always go to the indie down the street from my office. The employees know my name and I know theirs. They give me 20% off children’s books because they know my daughter is a teacher. They’re knowledgeable and they love reading as much as I do. They can order anything, and it takes a few days to get it in stock.
I use Amazon all the time, but I don’t even consider it for books.
I personally use a Kindle, because I read a lot in the middle of the night and I don’t want to deal with sitting up in bed and turning on a light. It’s also great when I travel - I’d rather stick a Kindle in my bag than three novels. I’m usually also listening to an audiobook during my commute.
Personally, I only buy my books from certain orders of cloistered monks – primarily Benedictine and Carthusians – who hand copy manuscripts with a quill and inkwell working in individual cells. I find that this process makes them immensely knowledgeable about the selection available. Of course, they can’t communicate any of that due to their vow of silence, but it still makes me feel good that they know it.
Not to mention Borders sells gifts, games, toys, and e-books.
I have a regular smart phone. But it is really hard for me, a senior citizen to read books on it. And America is ageing.
My buddy does like ebooks, but he has one of those fold out phones, with over twice the surface area. Not everyone can afford one of those. But even he wont read magazines or graphic novels on it.
But tell me, are you a reader? Do you read a lot?
Mine has a Starbucks inside.
Recycle Books stores make a point of having one… or two. This is in the San Jose area.
I worked PT for Borders, and even as a PT employee, won several sales awards by doing exactly that, and my Manager loved it. You can get that at a B&N also.
Ah, but you’d never have found the first book on Amazon in the first place.
Exactly.
I dont expect big changes either, but generally all the store sin a chain have to use a pal-o-gram. But in one area for example, maybe mysteries are really popular, so giving them a better spot m makes sense
My B&N has quite a few events, like once a month D&D night. They had a Lego trading nite.
Used bookstores are doing really well. One reason is the price- you can get the same book used on Amazon, maybe from an Indy, but with $4 S&H added. On a $4 PB book, that doubles the price.
Right. I find and buy quite a few new authors and books that way. I found "The Wager" a great see story, based heavily on facts.
Why hasnt on-line grocery shopping killed the grocery store?
I have not yet found a way to print on toilet paper.
A phone (or tablet) should be easier for older people to read on because of adjustable fonts. And you don’t need a $1500 flagship folding smartphone for igger size, a sub-$100 tablet will do.
I use my smartphone for reading novels and a 7 inch tablet for graphic novels/comics/manga (7 inch is better for holding than the more traditional 8 inch). I recently replaced my generic 7 inch tablet with a 256 GB MicroSD card (and a scratched up plastic screen, which was the main problem) with a refurb Kindle Fire 7 inch, case, and 512 GB MicroSD, all for less than 70 bucks. I have around 1.2 million pages of comics/manga stored on it and it is still less than half full.
Interesting thread. I was in a Barnes and Noble a few days ago for the first time in about 10 years. After years of reading e-books, it reminded me how much I missed bookstores. I saw hundreds of books that would never show up on an Amazon search and spent about two hours checking everything out.
And the place was packed with people. Anyone who says nobody cares about printed books anymore is clearly mistaken.
