As if a million voices cried out and were suddenly silenced.

[demonqueen666]

Wait, so not only is Joseph Beth gone, but now Borders is filing for bankruptcy too??

Despite the fact that I'm sure the truth is far more complicated, my kneejerk reaction is I want to blame this entirely on the Kindle.

Comments

[meridian_rose]

Agreeing with the others; Borders in the UK was very expensive too, especially for non-book items like DVDs, and unless they were doing offers on the books [two for x, etx] I never shopped there. Also I don't have an ebook and until they improve in terms of size and style and price I don't ever intend to [I want it to be the size of a paperback, I want a screen the size of a page, pref a double page spread when it opens out, more like a book than an iphone or something] but I never buy from Waterstones anymore.
I would blame online bookstores; most of my book shopping is for gifts and is almost always done online. I have evouchers from survey sites that let me shop at Amazon, and I can have gifts sent directly to the person rather than me paying postage on top of the gift, plus there are often signficant discounts. Supermarkets [for the chart items], stores like The Works [a discount stationery and bookseller], charity stores and car boots provide the rest of my book buying. I just haven't the money to pay full price for a novel, and I think a lot of people are in the same boat.

One other thing is lack of choice [exacerbated by the online business, admittedly]. We had a number of different bookstores in the UK and in Birmingham specifically. Over the last few years they've all folded, including Ottakers and Dillons, leaving only W H Smiths which is no longer as book focussed as it once was, and Waterstones. Before, if I couldn't find the book I wanted in Waterstones, then Dillons or Ottakers might have had it. Now I'd have no choice on the High Street but Waterstones, and would probably end up shopping online anyway.

[devida]

Ottakers folded? awww.. i got a lot of my college textbooks there back in 2000. Shame.
I agree with the ease and price of online book buying, but the one thing I can't do online is just .. browse. You know just put the legs on autopilot and wander round the place picking up random stuff. I can do that in Waterstones, then I go and buy the same book cheap on Amazon so i guess I'm having the best of both worlds.
But.. books are pricey. and my biggest splurge vice i think. either books or shoes.

[meridian_rose]

All the Ottakers I know of closed :( It was a nice store because it had a more eclectic selection of book.
You're right about browsing. Online searching does make you more focussed on specific authors/titles/subjects. Then again if I do wander around Waterstones I end up thinking 'so many books I can't afford :P"! Browsing in a bookstore reminds of me of part of the reason I love books more than any idea of an ebook; the tactile sensation, the smell, the overall physicality of a book, the random flicking through pages...not the same on a screen at all.

[devida]

there's a place called The Book Barn down in the South West that is, what the name implies a BIG warehouse full of second-hand books on everything. there's some good deals too (e.g. 5 paperbacks for £5) but many of the books are old editions from the seventies and eighties. and they really smell of that 'old book smell'. it's almost like geeky time-travel, looking back at a snapshot of the world when you weren't even born.