Social Commentary At Barnes And Noble
Daughter and I were killing time at the bookstore today when I came upon these two subject headings in one of the aisles
Sort of says it all, don’t it?
Fun, Life, Politics | Mr. Bingley | 
May 14, 2011 5:43 pm
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Excellent. It also doubles as a sad historical archive. In 5 or 10 years, there will be no bookstores.
Just read ‘The Girl with a Dragon Tatoo’ it’s the highest selling fiction in years.It’s okay,nothing special.Kinda like the Hardy Boys ‘secret of the Caves’
with sex and socialism thrown in.
How can you go wrong with sex and socialism. You can probably find that in the “Current Affairs” section as well.
Not to mention the White House, Yojimbo.
Rob, there will perhaps be no big bookstores. But there will still be bookstores. There are still stores that sell vinyl records. And do quite nicely.
Had you been at Borders I would have expected the Sarah Palin book to be over there in the True Crime section.
The vinyl record stores are kind of a fad that just made a bit of a comeback, Kathy. I don’t expect it to last. Do you? It’s expensive to manufacture a record, package it, ship it, and store it.
You’re right. The little boutique bookstores will satisfy the much smaller market for a time. As demand for printed books gets smaller, though, prices will rise. Competition from downloads will ultimately put them out of business, too, and for the same reasons. Manufacturing, shipping, storage, and time work against books but the biggest problem bookstores have is inconvenience. I can shop day or night. I can finish one book and get another in about a minute without even getting out of bed. I can carry 1500 books in my pocket. How long do you think bookstores can overcome that?
. . . and in the adjacent aisle, Occult.
Surprisingly, Rob, the B&N near me is hiring!