One place you will consistently see bookstores is in airports. This seems to have grown over the past few years. They have even expanded to sometimes include used or lending book components.
Part of me kind of wonders if the future is for Amazon to buy Borders/ B&N to function sort of like an Apple store, just to keep the “brand” of hardcopy books alive. I don’t know if people will sustainably pay the markup needed to maintain “browsing palaces.”
This is true – the only Waterstone’s books in this country anymore are at airports.
But that doesn’t mean that airport bookstores are immune. I’ve seen kiosks selling downloadable content to datasticks, and such downloads to storage and electronic readers is, I suspect, the future of this in airports. For the present, not enough people have electronic readers or laptops to eliminate books. But how are real paper books going to compete against the list of titles available from a franchise-wide array of downloadable books (and games and apps and the like)? Not to mention the convenience of the small size.
The future is wide open. but only if you have the right physical platform. And plenty of charge in your batteries.
Sure they can. They push new firmware to the Kindle wirelessly and without asking the user’s permission. They can do anything they like with it, including make it start playing Dixie. They probably won’t, but they certainly can.
I’m just not worried about it. It doesn’t reflect a reduced interest in reading or information.
There’s a lot more overall availability of books now than there used to be in the pre-Information-Superhighway days. Anything I want I can get in a matter of days without getting my butt out of my seat, and if I don’t need it in dead-tree form it’s immediate. There just isn’t that much need for small, understocked Mom and Pop stores anymore, for books or any other merchandise.
The browsing experience isn’t what it used to be, no. It’s less frequent to just come across something you hadn’t known you were interested in if you do it on a website than in a store, and that’s a loss (the crick in your neck from reading titles on vertical book spines isn’t a loss, though). But there’s a lot more to browse in a big store than a small one, and their specialty sections aren’t necessarily all that less-well-stocked than the individual proprietorship stores.
Also, the cost and other barriers to getting a new book published is lower now than it used to be, once freed of the cost of physical manufacture of a book, isn’t it? Isn’t there now more selection of new titles, and more availability of old ones?
Anyway, Cal, get yourself to the Used Book Superstores (not the one in our local mall, it’s too small, the ones in Danvers and Burlington) and you’ll find just about anything you need for a buck. They’re packed, too.
Been there, done that (before they opened the one in Saugus). Found a Jules verne I didn’t have.
By the way, there’s another used book store, apparently unaffiliated with those, at Meadow Glen Mall in Medford.
unfortunately, although they have a few treasures, they don’t have “everything I need” by a long shot, and just about everything is more than a buck. But I did find several worthwhile audiobooks at reduced prices.
Yes, my experience is that I can find quite a bit out there if I know what I’m looking for. The browsing experience online is not the same at all, and it’s not helped by whatever imbecile search routine Amazon uses.
part of my point is that easily available and plentiful bookstores have had an incredibly short lifetime. They started out hitting the 'burbs where i lived circa 1970, and they’re disappearing, aside from a much smaller number of Big Box stores, by 2010. Bookstores themselves have been around for centuries, but were restricted to a few major urban areas, but really common bookstores don’t even make the half-century mark. it’s about the same with record stores.
Other than the very small used bookstores (often genre specialized), I haven’t noticed it here. Then again, I live in a college town and the Greater Denver area as a whole is very literate. We don’t really have any of the old style “malls” that housed Waldenbooks and B Dalton anymore, they’re all the upscale type with as many freestanding stores as ones housed under the main roof. They all have a Mega-bookstore as part of the lineup.
Within ten miles I have a huge Borders and a Barnes and Noble (I was in it yesterday!), and a seemingly healthy independant, Boulder Bookstore. A look at Google shows a large number of stores in the metro area. This map covers a population of about 2.7 million people.
Denver has two locations of the independant Tattered Cover, which is a fantastic store. One is four stories, and had the idea of cozy chairs and fireplaces and coffee before the big chains siezed the idea.
When I lived in Lafayette Louisiana, there was one tiny (but good) independent bookstore in town, and one used bookstore specializing in romance novels. We had to drive 50 miles to Baton Rouge for a decent store. When a Waldenbooks opened in the mall it was wonderful.
When we went to NY we went to the big B&N there before they expanded, so having one open near us, even though we were living in Princeton at the time, was great. For the most part mall bookstores were crappy, though they had shrunk to the point of near uselessness just before they died.
In the Bay Area, happily, there are 3 used bookstores in easy driving distance with excellent sf collections, and I’m not counting any in San Francisco proper. They all seem to be crowded.
I like the joy of the search, but if I was seriously trying to fill in my collection EBay would be the way to go. However even 30 years ago I could have bought from dealers if I had wanted a specific issue. But I can’t blame those who grew up after the time when dusty bookstores were pretty much the only place to find these things from going the on-line route.
On the other hand, how many booksellers have successful online businesses, which are keeping them afloat?
I phrased that unfortunately. But the point is still that your chances of finding something you’d like, cheaply, is better there than at the stores whose passing you’re bemoaning. Another point is that there are options that have become available recently, too, and you should have discussed the net situation instead of the losses only.
Merely a reflection of contemporary technologies - “everyone” had a car before “everyone” had Net access.
But seriously, what has been lost by the book consumer? The smaller chains (Dalton, Wordsmith, etc.) in all those strip-mall storefronts had nothing that the bigbox chains that came along didn’t, they just had less of it. The quaint niche stores in Harvard Square or Charing Cross Road had some items that weren’t worth the bigboxes’ time, but not that much. And the growth of the bigboxes has provided distribution opportunities, and therefore sales volumes, that has gotten stuff into print that wouldn’t be otherwise, hasn’t it?
Your reductionism doesn’t reflect the full situation. What we have now are a relative handful of the same Big Box stores, and what they decide goes. Diversity goes out the window. And if your big store happens to go belly-up, there won’t be another store for a long distance.
As for getting more stuff into print, it ain’t necessarily so. Different bookstores used to have different distributors. Now you’re stuck with what the Big stores and the few independents go by. I didn’t appreciate this until I had a book in print. trying to get people to carry it when their distributor doesn’t is worse than pulling teeth. So, no, having all those stores consolidating into a handful hasn’t been good at getting a lot of books onto store shelves. Didn’t help mine.
Yes, and they could also stop selling anything but Harlequin Romances and old copies of Reader’s Digest if they wanted. But I doubt they’re going to do that, either.
You can always re-download things to your Kindle if they get deleted. And, worst case, you can turn the wireless off and use it entirely without connecting to Amazon.
Or you could buy another non-Amazon reader, if you’re truly afraid of such things.
So far, I don’t see any reason to decide that Amazon is a Big Bad Corporation. I buy a LOT of stuff from them, and have never had any issues at all. I can’t say that of most brick and mortar stores.
There are still heaps of bookstores here in Australia and they seem to be doing just fine- although they have finally realised they need to drop their prices to compete with online sales from the US and UK.
I’ve changed my browsing methods, and I have to say, I have MUCH better results than I used to by just going through the stacks at a bookstore.
I browse online, primarily through places like the Straight Dope (the “recommend a book” threads here are GREAT), or professional reviewers (I like the NY Times Book Review), or bookish social networking sites like GoodReads.
If someone mentions a book that sounds good, I check out the reviews on Amazon. If they look good, it goes on my “To-Read” list. When I want a new book, I pull out my list, and pick something in the genre I’m interested in. From there, I’ll download the first chapter and read it on my Kindle if it’s available. Or if I’m certain I want to read it, I’ll buy it from Amazon (Kindle edition or physical, depending on the book), or order it from PaperbackBookSwap, or hop online and see if my local library has a copy.
Considering the amount of time & money I’ve spent buying books that look good based on browsing in stores, I like the new method WAY better. I hate spending good money on a book that I end up not liking. Overall, I really don’t like browsing and looking for books anymore - it seems like I’m doing it blind, without all the resources I’m used to having at my fingertips.
I can’t imagine I’m the only one who has changed their book-buying in this manner.
This article (and the link that leads to a PDF showing book sales statistics from 2002-2008) seems to indicated that overall book sales are growing, albeit slowly (1.6% over the time period).
The biggest downturn was in 2008, where overall sales went down 2.8%. Given the economy in 2008, I can’t say that I’d believe this has anything to do with the book industry specifically; sales for all goods went down in 2008.
eBooks are experiencing massive gains, but they’re still only a small percentage of all books.
Pretty interesting PDF.
I’m an avid reader and have purchased just a few books from bookstores in the last year. I’ve been reading strictly electronic books for several years and it has changed my reading habit dramatically. I much prefer using electronic methods and wish “there was a better way.”
Unless you have a Kindle, the availability of ebooks is still too sparse. I think ebooks are the future, especially for college textbooks.
We have 4 book stores that I know of in this area. Two of them are very specialized and two have used books. (this is about a 40 mile radius, but I live in the boonies)
Growing up in a college town, I’ve never lived in a town that has had as vibrant a book business as I experienced there.
As far as bookshelves go, all my books are in boxes in a closet, waiting for the bookshelves to spontaneously appear. 
It is disturbing to me to go to a persons house that has no books.
My wife rightfully complains that almost every room of our house has bookshelves. She won’t let me put any in the kitchen or dining room. The worst part is they are all full.
I still love and prefer books. The eBooks will probably never replace books for me, but that does not mean that I don’t see where they will slowly take over the industry.
I don’t actually like the idea of eBooks. Books last for decades or longer. eBooks will be lost. You won’t be able to buy them used I would think. There will eventually be a pirate industry of eBooks.
My wife doesn’t complain – she’s a contributor. We have a bookcase of cookbooks in the kitchen. The dining room and living room are a single unit, with a bookcase of Millical’s books. I think the only places without bookcases are the bathroom, the back room of the cellar, and the attic. The bathroom is too humid for books. There’s a magazine rack, though. The other two places have books in boxes.
I think you’re right about e-books and piracy.
Um, what? The selection, or “diversity” if you like, of titles inside a bigbox is huge. That’s their main attraction. Or is your interest more in the stores themselves than in the product, and if so, why?
That hasn’t been the case in our area so far, but I guess it does depend on your definition of “long”. And do please note that a small store will have a higher overhead percentage as well as a smaller and less-attractive selection than a bigbox, so will have trouble staying afloat even with the smaller customer base it is able to attract.
Are there really fewer titles in print now than there used to be? If there really are fewer distributors, but they’re each handling a more “diverse” variety of product to stock the big stores, then so what?
I buy almost all my books from barnesandnoble.com (I get free shipping via my employer), and haven’t yet failed to find an in-print title that I’ve looked for. I do my browsing mostly the way Athena does, except I haven’t gone the Kindle route yet. Actually, I do most of my reading in audio format now, making use of a long commute - another fairly recent development that has expanded the reading experience for many of us, not just the blind anymore.
I realize I’m part of the problem. 
A few years back I finally started decluttering. Not that books are clutter, but there are limits, you know? Like I have seven bookcases in just my bedroom. All of them crammed full, with additional books piled on top.
Since I have a problem with disposing of books, I decided to be really restrictive on letting books get in. So basically now I get the vast majority of my books from the library. With today’s multi-library networks, and ‘order ILL from home’ options, it’s way easier to get anything you want than it used to be. (Hmmm. The improved ILL options might play a big part in the problem, too.)
Anyway, I get books from the library, and only buy books if I decide I’m highly likely to want to read them again, soonish.
Which doesn’t happen very often. Sorry, publishers and authors!
I’d be okay with instituting some sort of ‘fee’ for reading books, though. Say, $2 a book, $1 to the publisher, $1 to the author. How they’d handle the process, I dunno.
Wrong sense of “diversity” – If all you have is one company, all you get is what they buy (and put out on display). When I go to one of the Barnes and Noble superstores around me, I see them pushing the same books. And I don’t just mean the current bestsellers. When I go to an independent seller I see different books out. And if they get books from a different distributor, there’s a very good chance I’ll see books i won’t see and the B&N, no matter how many I go to.
Diversity.