
The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market - lermontov
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/kolkata-book-market-under-threat
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EliRivers
I wonder if this will turn out to be the kind of mistake discussed in Scott's
"Seeing Like a State". Planners and architects see something bustling and
chaotic and enforce a new system made of straight lines, and in doing so
eliminate something essential.

Maybe not; maybe it'll be a great success.

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rcshubhadeep
Besides all the capitalist and efficiency debate, I grew up buying and reading
books from here. I used to know many of the shop owners personally. It
happened several times that they kept a particular book on the side for me to
see it first. As they happen to know my liking and reading habit. I could even
bargain, in those days when money was scarce. I have fond memories of walking
down those streets in hit summer afternoon browsing through thousands of books
and pondering what to buy. Thanks to those stalls I got introduced and could
read world literature, philosophy, science ... I will be extremely sad to see
it gone! Please, if anyone is listening, please stop this.

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RickJWagner
I'm a huge packrat and have quite a few old books (especially tech titles. I'm
never ready to admit I won't be coding Visual Basic again one day....) But I
can see the future. I've been accumulating titles on my Kindle, and I really
like using it.

I think paper book sales are doomed for long-term decline.

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teh_klev
> I think paper book sales are doomed for long-term decline.

I'm not sure that's true. I own a Kindle but I find it's less expensive to
purchase new paper books just about every time. Sure there's the occasional
time when a book is on offer in the Kindle store, but it's pretty rare. I
haven't re-charged my Kindle for more than a couple of years.

Also there's a bunch of authors I've followed and read over the last 40 years
whose books I always buy in hardback whenever they publish something new.

When it comes to technical books paper wins every time, simply because it's
far easier to jump about the pages. Also diagrams, graphs, code samples, that
kinda thing are pretty awful in current e-book implementations.

And then for many of us there's nothing quite like the feel of a paper book
and, if you have space, building a physical library of stuff read, and stuff
to be read and being able to peruse it when looking for the next thing to
read. Though this does make for a lot of boxes each time you move house.

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smogcutter
> And then for many of us there's nothing quite like the feel of a paper book
> and, if you have space, building a physical library of stuff read, and stuff
> to be read and being able to peruse it when looking for the next thing to
> read.

A lot of people dismiss this, but I think it’s absolutely true. A hugely
formative part of my childhood was just browsing the bookshelves at home and
pulling down whatever looked interesting. If our books were on kindle, that
experience doesn’t happen.

Also, in the immortal words of John Waters: “If you go home with somebody, and
they don't have books, don't fuck 'em!”

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teh_klev
> A hugely formative part of my childhood was just browsing the bookshelves at
> home and pulling down whatever looked interesting

This is precisely how I widened the scope of what I read as a youngster. I get
very excited when I visit a new friend's or acquaintance's house and see
they've got a bunch of heavily populated bookshelves, and there are books
lying around everywhere.

Another thing I forgot to add as a reason for the continued existence of paper
books is flicking through older read books and discovering a bus or train
ticket, or a receipt, used as a makeshift bookmark which can evoke strong
memories or feelings from the time and place you'd read that particular book.
And getting your favourite authors to sign first editions at book readings.

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seabird
I'm curious as to whether or not the mall will be able to keep up. A student
is quoted as saying "this place is outdated, the roads are dirty, the hygiene
is poor, and in the summer it’s unbearably hot." I can see this being a side
effect of the vendors focusing solely on a better selection at a lower price,
because those are concrete metrics that they compete with others on. At the
end of the day, it's all that really matters; if a place doesn't have the book
I want at a price I can afford, any other conveniences mean nothing.

If I _need_ the books, the uncomfortable location with a huge inventory that
don't need to pad prices to deal with rent seems like the obvious first stop.

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noyesno
The vast majority of books printed up to the present day will never be
available in digital format. Therefore, as long as there is interest to the
older material, the secondhand book stores will thrive in one form or another.

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londons_explore
It might be a shame for an old tradition to go away, but in a capitalist
world, the usual reason something gets replaced is there is a more efficient
way to do it.

In this case, it's ebooks and learning over the internet. The need for the
paper book is diminished, and it is a waste of our human labour for thousands
of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more
efficient way to disseminate knowledge.

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saint_fiasco
Even if people prefer paper books, that used book shop in the article is still
doomed.

Their competition is not the internet. It's a better bookstore with lower
prices in an air conditioned shopping mall.

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trianglem
Having been to a similar market in Mumbai, I can tell you that any air
conditioned store with overhead is never going to be able to compete with
these roadside bazaars in range or pricing. I fondly remember buying huge
bagfuls of relatively recent releases for maybe $5 dollars a bag.

