
When a Bookstore Closes, an Argument Ends - powertry
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/when-a-bookstore-closes-an-argument-ends
======
crimsonalucard
Go read your e-book in a cafe, or go to the library. Problem solved. Argument
ended and won.

~~~
soapdog
don't think I agree with this. The environment of a bookshop invites smalltalk
around titles and lookers. On a cafe people are much less inclined to such
behavior and libraries, imho, attract a different crowd. At least where I am
from, they tend to be used for education related work assignments and tend to
be very quiet.

I remember more than ten years ago, driving with my father for 40 minutes at
2:00 AM to go to a 24/7 bookstore that had a great coffee. We would do that
often, specially in the odd hours where it was not as crowded and the
experience much more enjoyable. I started reading "Dune" and "Tao Te King" in
there while drinking tea of coffee and talking to random people I never met
again. Now, that place is a clothes store, there is no nice bookstores in my
city anymore. I don't believe that reading on a kindle or similar device on a
coffee shop will have the same effect but then, it might just all be
nostalgia...

~~~
niels_olson
There seems to me to be a general problem of too many books. It makes me a
little sick to say that, but I think it's true. We built a Little Free Library
(1) and we get _way_ more books than we have room for. We throw away complete
crap (e.g., anything from a Fox News author) and donate a Ikea bag (2) full to
Goodwill about once a month. It's like instead of sharing books, we've become
a sink for the neighborhood's infinite sources of books.

I personally own a _lot_ of books. Within the professons, I think it's safe to
say medicine is known for having a lot of books; within medicine, pathologists
are known for having a lot of books; among the pathology residents, I'm known
for having a lot of books.

Much like the rug seller becomes a collector of the best rugs, we are becoming
keepers of an insane library. I anticipate our special collections will
eventually beat the local public library's.

The point is: people are consuming a huge number of books. And shedding some
of them. Just the number they shed is overwhelming.

The house behind us is up for sale. I wonder if I should approach the buyers
(some investors) about converting it to a book cafe?

(1) [http://littlefreelibrary.org/](http://littlefreelibrary.org/)

(2)
[https://www.google.com/search?q=ikea+shopping+bag](https://www.google.com/search?q=ikea+shopping+bag)

~~~
Blackthorn
Local public libraries have had this problem since they were invented. Weeding
is a huge part of managing a collection.

My FIL is a director of a public library system. Weeds tons of books.

------
walterbell
We need more analysis of "uncanny valley" boundaries between F2F discovery and
atomized collaborative filtering. E.g. Amazon reviews can be better than algo
recommendations for book discovery. From the article:

 _" By atomizing our experience to the point of alienation—or, at best, by
creating substitutes for common experience (“you might also like…” lists,
Twitter exchanges instead of face-to-face conversations)—we lose the common
thread of civil life ... Books are not just other luxury items to be shopped
for. They are the levers of our consciousness._"

~~~
protomyth
"By atomizing our experience to the point of alienation—or, at best, by
creating substitutes for common experience"

I don't know much about the social life in France, but in the US we've done
this with the last couple of generations independent of computers and in
response to, unjustified statistically, fear. We plan our children's
activities and kill opportunities for exploration and organic growth. We lock
people up who leave their kids to run as previous generations because we need
to make everything safe.

Amazon does not lead, we were already there and they filled a need. Our common
thread is planned, isolated, micro-metered, and safe.

------
atdt
> I knew that it would be closing for good, though I was surprised to find
> that its fermeture definitive was to be this week, on Saturday, June 14th.

Saturday is the 13th. I know it's a minor detail, but when I see something
like that, I can't help but stop dead in my tracks and wonder if anyone took
the time to give this a cursory once-over before publication.

