Culture may close the book on shops

Contra Costa Times ^ | 6/22/6 | John Simerman

[ritewingwarrior]

E-books are going to be more prevalent as time goes on. Pretty soon people will be publishing books electronically and even the large distributors will see sales fall.
Even for me who reads probably 50-100 books a year, I do not frequent smaller bookstores very much at all anymore, and tend to go through B&N two or three times a month. I still favor the bookstore to Amazon, because you can actually see interesting things you might not have before.
There is also the fact that the younger generation is simply not reading as much. Music, internet, and TV are a big draw for people's time. When you hear that American 'Idle' got more votes than the President, you know people aren't reading.

[jmcenanly]

"It may be in the not-too-distant future that there is no such thing as an out-of-print book. If nothing is out of print and nothing is hard to find, all books will be $6."

Currently, on Amazon, you can have a used copy for $3.85 http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0521657296/sr=8-2/qid=1150987627/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-3257081-6960148?%5Fencoding=UTF8

His point is well taken, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. If knowledge is readily accessible, more people will be able to learn. Look at the explosion of knowledge after Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. In his time, he also had his critics.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Hmmm. We can only
wonder how other great books
perform at the store . . .***

Guess which one of the three will be clicked on most.

[KarlInOhio]

Or you can use Google and find a free copy on the web in less than 30 seconds.

http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/cpr/toc.html

Not as nice for curling up with in front of a fireplace, but a lot cheaper and searchable too.

[Bigg Red]

When the printing press was invented and came into common use, a lot of scriveners in England were thrown out of work. But that took a few decades, if not centuries.

In today's world, changes take place almost overnight.

***
Excellent analysis.

[KarlInOhio]

Guess which one of the three will be clicked on most.

[ Hangs head in shame ]

However, I was already familiar with the first two. I had to see what the third one was.

[SuziQ]

I've often thought someone should open one catering to "righty's".

Oh, I agree! They might have to endure stupid lefties picketing the place, though. I mean the lefties believe in free speech and all, as long as you agree with THEM. ;o)

[Bigg Red]

One thing the author or the bookstore owner don't fault is how the culture war which replaced the study of Kant, Plato and other "dead white man" in colleges by the trash of such as Rigoberta Menchu may be at fault...

***
Amen to that!

[xachthegreat]

Hmmm...pay for overpriced books with taxes or pay for a cheap used book with no taxes? Hmmm...

[Antoninus]

Maybe they should try following the trends rather than their political biases. Last week, I tried to buy a copy of Ann Coulter's "Godless." The first indie bookstore I went into didn't have it--although they had plenty of old books by Al Franken, Michael Moore, and that ilk. I then strolled over to another independent and found a copy. Of course, it was spine-out, buried on the shelf. At the register, the young lady cattily quipped to her colleague (not to me, mind you), "Is this the only copy we have?"

Her colleague replied with an equally superior tone, "Yeah, I guess he [meaning the owner] didn't even expect to sell that one."

When an independent bookstore owner isn't smart enough to put a top 5 bestseller on the NYTimes list and the Amazon.com rankings in a pile on his front table, he deserves to go out of business.

[caseinpoint]

Bingo! Plus changing in education philosophy from teaching how to think to what to think. Instead of opening the key to eternal learning by exposing students to intelligent philosophical debates, education today just teaches students to hook onto the best (in terms of the simplest and most entertaining) lecturers to be told what to think about any situation.

[jiggyboy]

Reap What You Sow Department:

a deteriorating Telegraph Avenue

...undoubtedly the result of intellectually honest businessmen packing up and leaving a socialist hellhole...

college students, his bread-and-butter market, are reading fewer scholarly books

...because they are majoring in "[Protected Group name here] Studies" which have so much more "emotional truth" than oppressive, Euro-centric, patriarchical fields of study like "Mathematics", "American Literature", and "Western Philisophy"...

an increase in city parking ticket fees that scared off customers around the Civic Center

...because government is looked to as the source of all things, thus it increases its funding requirements as well...

and a nettlesome homeless problem there

...because they have the "right" to live wherever they want in a place where they know suckers with no concept of individual responsibility will throw them the cash they "deserve"...

etc...

[weegee]

"I was in the Safeway in Sonoma, and they had Noam Chomsky for sale."

Filed in the sleeping aids part of the pharmacy?

[RedStateRocker]

But what is the point in paying for a bunch of dead tree data when I can just download it?

I mean for a living author, yeah, royalties are important but it's pretty stupid to pay money for information that has been in the public domain for generations- just so I can lug around a bunch of paper that takes up space in my house . I always liked Cody's, great selection of military history, excellent selection of cookbooks and darn good on technical lit; it will be a loss IMHO, but to pay good coin for something I can find online for free (when I'm not depriving a living author of their livelihood)? that makes as much sense as sending a donation to the Gates Foundation...

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***However, I was already familiar with the first two. I had to see what the third one was.***

Did you notice that Amazon listed in the suggested reading column Jenna Jamison's book HOW TO MAKE LOVE LIKE A PORN STAR?
D@MN! Gave myself away!

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Maybe they should sue the guy who invented the Internet.

He was killed by global warming. Had a heat stroke.

[redgolum]

I love used book stores, and spend to much time in them. The "indie" shops around here are either hard leftist or hard socialist.

[weegee]

I support a bookstore or record store to stand on personal taste. But that is a 2 way street.

Niche marketing means you are limiting your audience.

I wouldn't expect a quality bookstore of any sort to stock "Rush Limbaugh Is A Fat Idiot" by Al Franken (I can find dozens of close-out copies at a number of bookstores that sell remained books) but obviously someone bought it at one point in time.

I am perplexed by stores that order 1 or 2 copies of something. Sell them immediately and never restock. This happens with smaller press magazines too (things with a 3 month shelf life can be expected to run out at the newsstand in 1 week). If something is a consistent seller, and you are not opposed to carrying it to begin with, find that right number of copies (or reorder) and meet the demand.

If I have to ask a bookstore to order me a book, often (but not always) I'll price search it myself online (at www.bookfinder.com). I'm already going to have to wait.

Some independent stores will sell promo CDs and sample copies of books they are sent. This may explain some of the "one of these things is not like the other" stocking policies. Or maybe the owner wanted to thumb through a copy but didn't want to buy his own.

[dennisw]

Lots of foreigners (immigrants) have zero interest in our cultural legacy. The student population at Berkeley is mostly Asian. Draw your own conclusions

I lived in Berserkly many moons ago and know the terrain. Cody's had beautiful wood floors.