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Comment by rr808 | Hacker News Reader

Meh, I really dont miss bookstores, and I suspect most people who claim to love them are exaggerating. I dont read as much as I used to, my local library is good and online is much cheaper and convenient. What is cool is second hand books if you can get browse for something interesting cheap that you didn't know you wanted.

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It's also true in new bookstores that by browsing the stacks, you find books you didn't know existed and are interesting. Amazon does a very poor job of that - even the top 100 in a category are not as interesting as the selection in my local small bookstore in the same category. That's because the local bookstore is curated. Amazon is sorted by "popularity".

The Harvard Coop was about the last good technical bookstore in my area, but it's been dumbed down, and now just mostly carries the pop science stuff, like other bookstores.

I haven't been in the MIT Coop since they moved for the second time. They used to be right in the middle of the campus.

The MIT Press Bookstore was always an interesting place to go when I was in the area.

Yeah, I’ve kind of conflated them in my memory!

"I suspect most people who claim to love them are exaggerating."

I can't imagine why a person would either think, or write, this sentence. Most people are being honest when they say they enjoy a thing.

Because it reinforces his own assumptions and prejudices. It's a way of justifying a thought that is easily disproven.

By portraying someone who doesn't think the way you do as a bad person (in this case, a liar), this person elevates themselves, in their own mind.

It's pretty much seventh-grade logic.

A (good) public library may also scratch a lot of the same itches: you can browse the stacks, they sometimes have events and "staff picks", etc.

I'd chalk it up to an egocentric assumption, because it's not hard to accept people love things. I don't care much for old cars but I understand that for some people it's a huge passion they have a lot of love for and they're not exaggerating when they mention how much it means to them.

Some people (myself included) genuinely love bookstores in general and used bookstores specifically. It's not an exaggeration, if I lived near a good bookstore I would be there regularly.

My reasoning is that loads of people I meet say they love books and bookstores - but when I go to one of the few bookstores left in my area they're mostly empty, or usually mostly families looking for kids books.

I'm probably one of those people who waxes lyrical about bookstores but don't really find myself in them nowadays. To me it's a special experience tho. I experience them like museums and there are very few left (!!) that are imbued with that character of poetic chaos and serendipity. The only book shops left may indeed only be frequented by the demographics that keep the margins nice and fat. So I suppose there's a hidden bias in your observation.

I read a lot and every day. 90% of my reading has been on my iPad in the last several years because I agree it's just much more convenient. Despite that, I still love the ambiance of a good bookstore.

I'm a constant reader, and I'm doing more reading on my devices, using Kindle and Libby for books that I'm only going to read once. I have way too many books in my house, and I actually don't have enough time left to finish reading them all!

I'm glad that these other venues work for you, but don't assume that everyone else values the same experiences as you. Speaking personally, I find that a physical used book store has many practical and aesthetic advantages over an online store. (An example of a practical benefit for me is discovering new writers.)

I know many people who in actuality love and prefer a physical bookstore. This is evinced by many profitable bookstores in my area (both new and used).

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