Amid the closing of retail stores in the spring and the ongoing instability in retail business, bookstores took more business online. This New York Times article, “Bookstores Are Struggling. Is a New E-Commerce Site the Answer?,” describes how independent bookstores (which means those not owned by a corporate conglomerate) increasingly turned to online sales over the last months through a new site, bookshop.org.
Some booksellers are pleased with this development since it’s another way to get their books into people’s hands. Plus, it may cut into the domination of Amazon, a site that has always been a problem for bookstores, publishers, and book-buyers.
But this could create other problems. Some booksellers think the online bookshop.org will act as an additional competitor, pulling people away from the actual stores. They would rather create their own online portals to keep their customers.
Growing up, bookstores were an important social space for me and my friends — and it was as much because of the music, coffee shops, and comfy chairs as for the books.
And many people have sentimental connections to bookstores as quiet spaces of discovery and reflection.
Bookstores are an important and popular cultural institution. The #bookstagram hashtag on instagram, for instance, has been used on over 25 million photos.
Do you have any connections with bookstores? Do you have a favorite one?
And on a different but related note: Do you think reading paper books vs electronic books (or any text) makes a difference in how you read? Do you have a preference?
