

How Amazon Kills Books and Makes Us Stupid - Gibbon
http://www.alternet.org/books/147590/how_amazon_kills_books_and_makes_us_stupid/?page=1

======
mhd
6 pages. The main argument: Without altruistic publishers and book store
personell/owners, people won't buy smart books and stick to the mindless
drivel of bestsellers. Because mere customers couldn't recommend those
pinnacles of literary achievement, there's no other way to drive sales (book
critics?) and the Amazon book recommendations just are a vicious circle
towards the biggest sellers.

I've heard similar arguments before, which is why Germany still has fixed
prices on books. Without declaring them damaged, any book that is in print
will got at the listed price, no discounts possible. The reasoning behind
this: By keeping the bestsellers more expensive, publishers can fund the
literary masterminds.

All such thinking is astonishingly patronizing and reeks of a general "we know
best" mentality. Books beyond bestsellers can go "viral", but apparently all
those books will just be dumb, pulpy entertainment.

