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Is the article saying that's a problem? If there is a problem it's a form of life being destroyed ("Publishers now worry about the long-term health of physical

by slibhb 6y ago

Is the article saying that's a problem? If there is a problem it's a form of life being destroyed ("Publishers now worry about the long-term health of physical bookstores"). Reminds me of my father taking me to the local VHS rental place when I was a kid. That's gone now. Bookstores could easily follow. Of course these changes happen due to consumer decisions. It's creative destruction and I wouldn't want to live in a static society. But for people who are attached to the thing that's disappearing, it's a little sad. I've discovered authors by mistake in bookstores. I use Amazon and Alibris all the time but it's not the same as a bookstore.

PaulHoule 6y ago
Bookstores are different from "physical stores" in general because books themselves are arguably obsolete. My $50 Fire tablet can hold 1000+ books in PDF form not to mention Kindle format, HTML, etc. It's almost as good as "read a penguin paperback" on the bus or in bed. Go to an academic library and you see the stacks are empty (of people), books rarely circulated, but people are crowded around the computer terminals. (e.g. smart introverts go use the terminal deepest in the stacks) "Books" as a form of literature could survive the end of physical books quite well, just as "Movies" could survive if the theaters never re-opened and it was all direct to video. Contrast that to Lowe's or Kohl's or some other store that sells physical objects that are still in demand. B and N tried the "build a community space with free WiFi" but in our town it became a downmarket version of the public library (another five minutes from the police station) and one day they "kicked the bums out" and as I walked by an Asperger's female with poor hygiene was complaining about it.
- intergalplan 6y ago
  Physical books maintain a UI advantage for many kinds of works, which may outweigh their extra storage burden and lack of full-text search. They compete worst (in fact they lose, probably, overall) for ordinary fiction, and other works that use few text features and are mostly linear prose. In favor of ebooks, that category does happen to be a high percentage of all books sold.
  - PaulHoule 6y ago
    Actually if you want to refer to material in five different books simultaneously and have a notebook to write in and a scratchpad traditional media still wins. (Hmmm.... but what if I had 7 e-ink pads?)

by slibhb 6y ago

PaulHoule 6y ago

Bookstores are different from "physical stores" in general because books themselves are arguably obsolete. My $50 Fire tablet can hold 1000+ books in PDF form not to mention Kindle format, HTML, etc. It's almost as good as "read a penguin paperback" on the bus or in bed. Go to an academic library and you see the stacks are empty (of people), books rarely circulated, but people are crowded around the computer terminals. (e.g. smart introverts go use the terminal deepest in the stacks) "Books" as a form of literature could survive the end of physical books quite well, just as "Movies" could survive if the theaters never re-opened and it was all direct to video. Contrast that to Lowe's or Kohl's or some other store that sells physical objects that are still in demand. B and N tried the "build a community space with free WiFi" but in our town it became a downmarket version of the public library (another five minutes from the police station) and one day they "kicked the bums out" and as I walked by an Asperger's female with poor hygiene was complaining about it.

intergalplan 6y ago
Physical books maintain a UI advantage for many kinds of works, which may outweigh their extra storage burden and lack of full-text search. They compete worst (in fact they lose, probably, overall) for ordinary fiction, and other works that use few text features and are mostly linear prose. In favor of ebooks, that category does happen to be a high percentage of all books sold.
- PaulHoule 6y ago
  Actually if you want to refer to material in five different books simultaneously and have a notebook to write in and a scratchpad traditional media still wins. (Hmmm.... but what if I had 7 e-ink pads?)