I had a conversation with a friend today and she was lamenting the passing of Borders bookstore. It made me think a little bit about technology. I have a Kindle and I love it. I've always been an instant gratification kind of person, and I love the fact that I can think of a book (or see an article about one, or hear about one through a friend) and have it two seconds later. I love the ease of being able to carry multiple books with me-- and the fact that I don't have to buy yet another build-it-yourself bookshelf from IKEA. I love being able to underline passages that resonate with me and then posting them on Facebook. I love that some nameless entity in cyberspace can tell me what books I might enjoy based on what I've read in the past.
But I also love browsing in a bookstore. The smell of old books on a shelf in the library. Buying bookmarks with little tassles that the cats would eat the very next day. The physicality of turning a page. Getting up extra early for work so I would have time to go to the bookstore the day of the release to purchase the latest Stephen King novel. Bookstores employ people who can tell you, "No, we don't have that in stock, but our store in Skokie does. Can I order it for you?" Or, there's nothing like scanning the shelves alphabetically by author and feeling the thrill of, yes, they have a copy of a book I've looked in seven bookstores for. Sitting down at the cafe with a milkshake and leisurely looking through a stack of magazines that I have no intention on buying.
I speculated to my friend today that within five years, bookstores may be a rarity. I hope that I'm wrong and that bricks and mortar and vapor can find a way to exist in harmony. Because I need and enjoy both.
It's unfortunate that so many of the things we like tend to be in the process of destroying each other. I love to order books from Amazon, because they have so many titles and deliver right to my door. But I used to love to go to book stores, and it's the orders from Amazon (either dead tree books or electronic) that's killing the book stores.
ReplyDeleteAlready, some books are electronic only; there are no dead tree copies. Is that the future of publishing? When I consider how often technology changes these days, I worry about books that require an electronic intermediary like the Kindle to read them. Will less popular titles be updated as the technology changes? Are you still listening to your 8-track tapes?