Big city left with no bookstore

cnn.com

2 points·ShabbyDoo··6 comments

Maybe -all- the corporate bookstores will tank. And then the little indies with their low overhead and innate charm could fill the welcome void.

That'd be good. Cuz: you can't browse through hundreds of books at Amazon, and make those amazing discoveries that change your life. And you can't pick something on a whim and take it home to read that evening at Amazon. You can't talk to a human being, or meet other readers at Amazon.

Only the little bookstores ever have that oddball stuff that bigstores will never carry that you can pick up and smell and leaf through and take a chance on.

Corporate bookstores weren't an improvement, they were a symptom.

"I seriously don't understand why people don't just like reading that much"

Although the article mentions Amazon, it doesn't bother to even entertain the possibility that a bricks & mortar bookstore is unnecessary. Furthermore, I find browsing for books on Amazon to be a much better experience than standing around bookstore shelves. Clearly, some people have a strong emotional attachment to bookstores, but their apparent grief seems over the top.

i disagree (but still upvoted you from 0).

there are strengths and weaknesses for both types of stores. there are things you can do in a brick and mortar bookstore that you just simply can't do in amazon, and vice versa.

I love going to author events at book stores.

Recently saw Dawkins at the Tribeca B&N.

Sometimes I also like paging thru mags.

this seems like a problem with a simple solution. someone should open a mom & pop bookstore.

especially considering the support being shown by the community for books.

Perhaps the bookstore ought to be a non-profit offshoot of the literacy campaign mentioned in the article.

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