Comment by tjr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tjr | Hacker News Reader

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I still buy printed books. I almost never buy any books at a major book retail store like Borders or BN because they carry very very little that I am interested in buying. They used to stock more that I was interested in, but their stock has changed over the years. I suppose they were aiming for a more middle-of-the-road, palatable-to-all sort of stock selection, but I for one have basically been driven away.

I initially reason, well, I must be a very unusual shopper. I buy a lot of books on programming topics, math, science, etc., and I eschew with passion anything written for dummies, idiots, fools, or morons.

But then I wonder, am I really so unusual? I'm not an expert historian, but I enjoy studying history, and I'm disappointed with the local store's selection of history books about as much as I am with their technology books. I enjoy studying linguistics, and have watched the store's linguistics section melt away into nothingness. I enjoy science fiction, but am dismayed to see shelves of fantasy displace books by my favorite authors.

I can't really speak for every subject matter, but for pretty much every topic I want to read about, the big chain bookstores seem to be dwindling their stock, and smoothing out what little they do carry to appeal to some unknown typical readership.

If this is indeed true of all (or even most) of the subjects of books they carry, then I find it hard to believe that anyone who truly enjoys reading books is content with what they carry. Which leaves... people who really aren't very fond of books to peruse the shelves? I don't know. It doesn't make any sense to me.

I would greatly enjoy doing more book shopping in person. I seem to be good enough at searching Amazon to come up with good books sight unseen, but I'd like to go browse in the store, if only the store had books in stock that I'd want to browse.

I think you hit on something very important - that the buyers who decide what gets sent to the bookstore matter a lot.

Let me give you a couple of examples from the days when my parents ran a general and Christian books and music store...

The store was located close to several antique shops - women would go antiquing, drag their husbands along, then stop at the bookstore. Our bookstore had a huge selection of books on antiques and collectibles for just this reason - stuff you would be hard pressed to find even today in a Borders or B&N, like a $200 book on Tiffany Lamps, or even a $30 book on Depression era pressed glass.

Of course, the men were often bored - until they saw the books we had on cars, trucks, car repair, woodworking, military aircraft, etc.

We would sell at least $1000/week of car repair manuals such as the Chilton or Motorcraft series (and this was a small store). The $17 book on small gas engine repair (lawnmowers etc.) did very well also.

When we found people were restoring old Mustangs, we started carrying the $80-$110 Hollander Interchange manuals, which tell you which parts from which Mustangs are exactly the same for each year (e.g. a suspension component from any of 65-68 Mustangs might be identical, making it easier to find the part).

If you walk into a Borders today, you will find very little customization of each store for the local market. For instance, in the York, PA, store, home of a big Harley Davidson factory and filled with people who like hot rods (big cruise nights in the area) ... not even a small table packed with such books.

Second example: the Christian music buyers were always focused on the teen market (Christian Rock like Petra, etc.) -- but Christian music-buying teens usually have far less allowance money (IME) because their parents are more conservative.

So our music selection ignored the teens, and focused on having the music that the parents or other Christian adults would want (tended to be Christian country, Sandi Patti, and Christmas albums). Those folks, being adults, and in the prime of their earning years, had little hesitation in buying, often multiple items at a time. The buyers at other stores turned up their nose at such folksy stuff, to their detriment I think.

Imagine the sales lost by bookstores nationwide by focusing on Twilight books, heavily discounted, which attract distracted and less-rich teens, versus looking for and exploiting local niches.

Not to mention, even if Borders had it, Amazon would be cheaper anyway, and Amazon's reviews are a huge source of book information to me.

I generally prefer Borders to Barnes-and-Noble because they always seemed to stock more titles. But I almost never buy anything at either of them without one of their 30-50% off coupons, which brings them close to Amazon's price.

I can't find it, but there's an article out there somewhere about how Boston Market has really struggled because they set their prices high and issue a lot of discount coupons, so a lot of their customers are bargain shoppers not people looking for higher quality.

I definitely wish that either book chain (or a new business) would focus more on the "experience" part of what these stores are now. They're always busy, but mostly full of people with laptops. I know some of them won't spend a dime there, but I suspect most of them would pay a couple bucks an hour for a comfortable seat, power, decent wifi, and access to snacks, drinks, books, and gadgets to buy. I know I would.

Amazon reviews are seriously broken. I'm surprised anyone would want to defend them other than Amazon employees or partners.

Sure, there are some good reviews on Amazon by credible critics and book lovers, but they have increasingly become like searching for a needle in a stack of needles. Most reviews I read, even on academic books that the hoi polloi don't read much, variate a great deal and swing wildly between 5 star ratings and 0. They are also filled with petty invective, academic flame wars that have no place on a good review site, and authors faking reviews for their own books (or those of their scholastic rivals).

I find them generally informative, it depends on the book I guess. If something has 20+ reviews you can easily get a pretty good feel for it. I'd agree with you on obscure stuff with only a handful of reviews. As long as you don't have to trust any single reviewer there is a lot of good information to be had, same with IMDB really, every popular movie has reviews at each extreme, but given enough choice in reviews you can get a decent feel for it.

i dont have the attention span for a book. that said, i read voraciously from a variety of resources using instapaper. i read a minimum of 2-3 hours per day everyday.

i haven't opened a book in over a year, and haven't finished a book in years.

Books are random-access; you don't necessarily need to read the entire book to benefit from it.

But anyway. As a non-book-reader, where do you see local bookstores heading? I suspect that nothing they could do to their stock or their prices would draw you in?

  The shift could feed Amazon, Apple *and other survivors* 
  with extra customers.

As the market for physical copies are dwindling, total profits in the industry decreases and some companies will decide to exit. This will reduce the decline of profitability for the remaining businesses and thus reduce the rate of companies exiting the industry.

The local book store may survive yet.

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