Friday, January 20, 2012

Book Store Blues


I've covered the rapid demise of America's brick-and-mortar bookstores several times here at TDS. Booksellers are now disappearing so fast that I wonder how long it will be before they vanish from the landscape altogether. It struck home for me again this past Sunday when, passing by my favorite Northern Virginia used bookstore, I was dismayed to see a big Going Out of Business banner hanging in the front window. I've been regular visitor to that particular store ever since it first opened in 1994, and most of the staff have worked there for many years. And now, just like that, poof--gone.

It shook me up enough that I decided to drive on over to the Barnes & Nobel location that is nearest to my house. I've never been a big fan of B&N because of how the chain drove so many mom-and-pop bookstores out of business, but other than the remaining used bookstores, they are about all that is left in Northern Virginia these days.

I hadn't been there in about six months, so I was very much relieved to see it was still open and actually had quite a few cars outside in the parking lot. When I went inside, however, there were changes afoot. Immediately inside the front door, right where the featured new releases used to be on display, was a brand new information booth where you could learn all about the Nook, and even take one of about a dozen display models for a test drive. Reacting as if a diamondback rattlesnake had just slithered into my path, I avoided eye contact with the two young salesgirls behind the counter and skirted around it as quickly as I could.

To my dismay, however, that wasn't the only change to the store. Literally about half of the space that used to contain books now no longer does. Instead, shelf after shelf was filled with toys and games and other useless crap that has absolutely nothing to do with actually reading. The non-fiction New Arrivals section had maybe a couple of dozen titles, whereas it used to occupy several bookcases and could take me a hour alone to browse through. The physical quality of the books that were present also appeared to have declined. The bindings these days are cheap, and even the hardbacks look they'll start to fall apart in just a few years.

Another distressing thing I noticed was just how shitty many of the titles were that were actually on the shelves. Celebrity biographies, teen vampire nonsense, self-help clap trap, romance novels and guides to spiritual living by teevee preachers seemed to be everywhere I looked, while serious works of either fiction or non fiction were in very short supply. Fittingly, in the bargain section there was one lonely copy of a cheapo hardback collection of reprinted classic short apocalyptic fiction stories that I almost bought just because of how perfectly apprpriate it looked sitting there on the shelf.

In the end, I merely grabbed a couple of deeply discounted titles because of how little there was that I actually wanted to read. The checkout clerk was a young guy probably not long out of college who was cheerful enough, considering, but when he asked me if I had a Barnes & Nobel membership card I had to restrain myself to keep from bursting out in a cynical cackle. No, I wanted say, but I'm good. I figure it's about a 50-50 chance at this point that your store will even still be here a year from now. Perhaps he knew what I was thinking, because when I merely said I did not have membership card, he didn't try to push one on me.

By the time I got home I was depressed. Despite what I write on this blog every day about America falling apart, I just can't imagine living in a world without bookstores. Sadly, that day is coming very soon. In fact, other than maybe making an occasional special trip to one of the two remaining independent booksellers down in the District of Columbia, visiting the bookstore has already almost become just a memory for me. It sucks.

Why are we as a culture in such a goddamned hurry to get rid of our physical books and replace them with these damn electronic readers? It's bad enough that the lingering effects of the recession were already killing the publishing industry.

You can't call it "progress," because that is complete and utter bullshit. We're maybe 20 years or so at best from the power grid breaking down on a widespread basis. So what happens to all those e-books then? They'll disappear into the ether, that's what. It's madness. But that's where we are as a culture these days.

20 comments:

  1. Welcome to the new Dark Ages. This time, instead of being overrun by a barbarian horde, we turn into one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, where I live, as Barnes & Noble closed, a tattoo parlor opened not a mile away. Today there are no bookstores in town, but there are two thriving tattoo parlors. That about sums it up, I think.

      Delete
    2. @Anon - I'll just bet James Kunstler would LOVE your town. :)

      Delete
  2. My wife and I are on a mission to collect all of the classics of literature, peer-reviewed history books, and practical how-to books we deem will be important in an energy constrained future. It is clear our home library combined with our community library will be essential reference material to carry on the business of living in a meaningful way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @John Andersen: I hope by 'community' library - you're not referring to the public libraries because those will be underfunded and eventually closed...

      Delete
    2. @Gail - it's Brave New World - where rather then fascists burning books, no one would want to read one...

      Delete
  3. Working at B&N as have for the past ten years is even more depressing. The sad part is books are selling as well as ever, but the idiots who run the company, aided by the fools in the financial press have determined then ebooks are the only focus of the store. Nevermind that without the damned Nook, the stores are still profitable. We have to dedicate staff to that damned nook table over staffing for book customer service. Hence we sell fewer books. Don't get me started on the devoting half the store to toys and games that no one buys. I'm coming to believe that the corporate flack you so love are actually as stupid as they sound, judging by the corporate bosses I've met. Sadly, it's not flack speak, it's how they talk and think. As long as they have a job, screw the regular workers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I worked for them for five years, but left just before the Nook gadget came on the scene. I saw the company become more and more micromanaged from NY, to the point of absurdity. I also watched not only the games/toys/puzzles take over floor space, but saw the science and history sections vanish to almost nothing, while such areas as religion and "religious fiction" expanded dramatically.

      Delete
  4. Bill-this is the most incredibly sad piece I think I've read here. Obviously I'm not discounting the death and constant warfare pieces, but that can only get worse in a world that doesn't even value basics like this. I know there is a tendency to look back and view the past with less than accurate blinders, but this is concrete. People are reading shit if they read at all and a lot of it is on digital devices that could disappear. This all makes me want to scream.
    Kathleen
    (sorry posted this as anonymous-when I try to log in it asks me all these extra things even though I thought I signed on...see how much I truly love electronic stuff...oh well)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Bill,
    I'm an avid reader, but I haven't bought a "NEW" book in years. I like reading non-fiction mostly science, engineering, math, etc. The price of new books in these subjects is >$50, one volume I especially liked was $200+ at B+N. Who can afford that? It's bad enough that I have to think about buying the used stuff at $10 - $25 each.
    Is this our future, skulking around garage sales and junk stores looking for books cast off by someone else?
    The real problem is it isn't secondhand books; they're just a symptom of our continuing economic decline.

    ReplyDelete
  6. In the good old days the fascists used to burn books. Soon they can just evaporate them. Delete!

    The children's library in my locale is a disgrace. Why do they have computers with games on them? The kids fight over them, and the books just sit on the shelves.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bill, it's very sad news to read about the demise of the US book store. This is one issue where I am happy to report Ireland is not following this trend (not yet anyway). While book sales are down, by 5.6% in 2010 (http://www.askaboutwriting.net) and 10% in 2011 (http://www.irishpublishingnews.com), this decline is less than the decline of the overall economy, so while the book market is taking a hit, it is holding up better than many other sectors. Some of this decline is presumably caused by ebooks. But every major town still has several book stores. And there are still lots of books stores in the major cities.

    Incidentally some months back I was thinking of buying an ebook reader, until you pointed out to me that in the future ebooks will vanish. Acting on your advise I am continuing to support my local book store.

    ReplyDelete
  8. DS downloads light reading onto his phone, but buys print copies of things he wants to make sure to have long-term.

    I don't buy e-books, so would welcome hearing from educated readers who do, whether or not they're edited as well as print titles.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Reminds me of this Penny-Arcade comic -

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/3/9/

    ReplyDelete
  10. i think books will survive. i agree with alan moore:

    "I just tend to have quite a lot of faith in the book itself as the publishing world equivalent of a shark. Sharks have not evolved in millions and millions of years simply because they haven’t had to. They were pretty much perfect to start with. And I feel the same way about books. I doubt that published books are going to go anywhere any time soon."

    from an interesting interview at http://www.honestpublishing.com/news/honest-alan-moore-interview-part-1-publishing-and-kindle/

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great comments, everybody. Clearly this is an issue that touches a nerve with us book lovers.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Is Orwell's 1984 a popular donwload book, I wonder?
    Irony of ironies if it was.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Saddest piece yet. But so true. I still remember Horizon Books in Traverse City, Mich. I spent hours there and at the library. Gone all gone. Nobody reads anymore. Ray Bradburys Farinheit 451 has finally come true. But its all been done digitally. What a dark day.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Soon books won’t be what people need
    To survive, let alone succeed;
    While that’s pretty bad,
    What’s even more sad
    Is when no one will know how to read.

    ReplyDelete