Saturday, February 12, 2011

Hello, Fireman!

In times to come, your children may only faintly remember the bookstores of their early years, and your grandchildren will think of them as a quirk from your past. If I had a Facebook account, I would post this:

In light of the Borders bookstore Co. preparing to file bankruptcy, due in large part to Amazon.com sales and their Kindle gizmo, one fellow, who knows his stuff, said this:

"I think that there will be a 50% reduction in bricks-and-mortar shelf space for books within five years, and 90% within 10 years," says Mike Shatzkin, chief executive of Idea Logical Co., a New York consulting firm. "Book stores are going away."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704329104576138353865644420.html

4 comments:

  1. Maybe it's just because all of their books suck. Now, maybe if they had Scotus on the shelves...

    ReplyDelete
  2. They said the same thing about snow and glaciers in the Himalayas and yet here we are.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bookstores and libraries aren't going anywhere. The reason why Border's and even Books a Million are suffering is because they have not developed their own E-reader like B&N and also they intentionally do not carry certain books. BAM's philosophy section is pathetic is full of Christian inspiration books, etc. THAT IS OKAY, I have no problem with those books, but how can you have a philosophy section in a bookstore and have NO Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein, Russell, and tons more? Of course print is suffering these days but many brick and mortar stores are surviving because they are not resisting the direction technology is going in. The theme of your blog is funny and ironic considering this post because guys like you have been pouting about the same things for hundreds and hundreds of years. And yet. Here we are.

    ReplyDelete