Tampa Bay Times Bill Maxwell laments "slow death of bookstores." I'm with him on that.

[LWolf]

91. I've been watching the transition with ambivalence.

Last edited Fri Feb 15, 2013, 09:19 AM - Edit history (2)

As a life-long bibliophile, I'm attached to my books. So attached, that when I moved 1200 miles away to a new state 8 years ago, I left almost everything behind but the books. It took a big truck to move the books, and a lot of money. I've got thousands.

When I bought the new house, the realtor kept showing me "open concepts" that he thought would please me, since that's the way home design has evolved. I kept looking around and saying, "there aren't enough walls for my book shelves." I chose my home for location, room for horses, and room for book shelves. I've got 69 feet of shelving in the room I'm typing in now, and, since I have an eat-in kitchen, I filled the dining room with another 90 feet of shelving. I've got another 1500 books at work, and I still have books in storage.

Somewhere along the line, I decided that I'd like to convert some, but not all, of my collection to digital, just so it wouldn't take up as much space. I investigated, and wasn't really happy with the options. I'd like digital copies that can be read on any reader, and stored anywhere. That wouldn't need to be "updated" when technology changes, like an old beta or vhs or dvd. I noticed that, despite not needing any paper, ink, binding, printing, or shipping, digital copies cost almost as much as hard copies; at least, too many in my library do. I already own them; I'm not going to pay THAT much for them again. That money could go toward new books.

While I was waffling, my oldest son got a kindle for his college text books. Now THAT is a good use of the technology. I'd love it if we could provide readers and digital versions of all the textbooks we issue and collect at school every year. Especially if the reader was some kind of tablet that had multiple uses.

I was looking at the Nook; I like B & N better than Amazon. My son gave me a kindle for my bday last year. I've used it some.

I prefer holding a book to a digital reader. I prefer turning pages to touching screens, which often jump ahead and leave me scrambling to find my place. I don't like the options on my kindle for organizing a large library. I'm not going to convert my hard copies to read on this kindle. It IS a great thing to have on vacations. I don't go very far since the economy crashed, but when I have a chance to get away, I usually take a whole bag of books along. Being able to take just the kindle and have access to anything I want to read while on the road or lounging where ever I land is great.

I've seen the devaluing of actual books, and it pains me. My mom used to have a used book store. When she moved, she didn't sell the store; she took the books with her, despite my warnings. Those books have filled her garage and the living room of her house, which is unusable as an actual room, being crammed with shelves and books so that you can barely fit down all the aisles, for more than a decade. She's slow. She doesn't do anything in a hurry. We kept urging her to sell them online; she didn't like the prices she would get. She thought they were worth more. She got other book store owners in to make offers; she was shocked at how little they were willing to pay. Finally, just last year, she started GIVING them away to charities and prisons because NOBODY will take them anymore. Even the charities wouldn't take them all, and she's still trying to unload them so she can get her living space back.

I don't think we can stop the digital revolution. I just hope that, in the coming decades, libraries continue to keep hard copies. By the time they've become as rare as an old victrola, I'll be gone.