6 ms·

I recently visited Paris for work and was struck by the number and quality of small local book shops, often seeming to specialize in one thing or another, as co

I recently visited Paris for work and was struck by the number and quality of small local book shops, often seeming to specialize in one thing or another, as compared to where I live (SF). Prior to that I had always thought that SF had a lot compared to elsewhere.

nikanj 4y ago
You can read on the train but you can't read while driving. Surprising nth order effects of city planning, the more car-centric your culture is, the less time the average person has for books
- KineticLensman 4y ago
  > you can't read while driving Hence audiobooks (and more generally, podcasts)
- robertlagrant 4y ago
  > Surprising nth order effects of city planning, the more car-centric your culture is, the less time the average person has for books Perhaps this could be a selling point here in the UK. Yes your very late train has once again been cancelled and you now have to get a place on the replacement bus service, but at least you've had some time to read! The stance I'd have is the less travel-centric your life is, the more time you have for reading (or anything else). Big tech making more remote work feasible has opened this up a lot more than city planning can.
chrisseaton 4y ago
> I had always thought that SF had a lot compared to elsewhere Try Hay on Wye in the United Kingdom. 20 second-hand bookshops for a population of 2000.
- robin_reala 4y ago
  That’s a somewhat specialist case though, given that the only reason anyone’s heard of the place is the literary festivals they host: https://www.hayfestival.com/wales/home https://www.hayfestival.com/wales/home & https://www.hayfestival.com/winter-weekend/home https://www.hayfestival.com/winter-weekend/home
juliendorra 4y ago
There’s probably several factors, including Paris population density (highest in Europe if I remember well), 50%+ car-less families (you can see people reading in the metro), and the fact that literary prizes are evening news worthy events (cultural effect of books and authors being important even to non-readers) But one really important structural factor is that books must be sold at the same price, by law, everywhere (+/- 5%, price fixed by the publisher. So you may pay -5% on Amazon or a retail chain like FNAC compared to a local book shop). This law dates back from the 80s, when book shop retail chain FNAC started to get very successful. Add to that a very efficient book logistics system, and it’s often as fast and nearly as cheap to order a book and get it at a book shop than with Amazon. It’s not all rosy as the system is very concentrated and vertically integrated on the publishers and distributors (wholesale) parts. These publishers+distributors combos get the major part of the revenues, and it’s in their interest to push a crazy number of new books every year (with something like 30% of the stock getting destroyed every year. Book shops can send back books easily and get refunded) Authors and book shops, at the two ends, get a very small percentage of the revenues. French authors are totally dependent on their publishers for every step, from editing to publicity, and usually license all rights from the get go. Book shop have very small margins (I read around 2%!) and even just loosing thrillers or another popular segment to ebooks might make hundreds of book shop collapse ‘suddenly and unexpectedly’…
- Semaphor 4y ago
  It’s actually almost the same in Germany. I don’t know the details, but we have fixed prices (no +/- wiggle room) and the rest of your post rings true. Though independent book stores have been dying with mainly major chains surviving. This is only for German books, though, foreign languages are not affected by the fixed prices.
  - robertlagrant 4y ago
    > Though independent book stores have been dying with mainly major chains surviving. This isn't surprising - larger chains can get economies of scale and spend that money on hiring the best staff / more marketing / more locations / lower delivery costs / faster delivery / nicer shops. Smaller shops not being able to charge more for their books sounds detrimental to their survival.
jcmeyrignac 4y ago
In Paris, there are 3 big second-hand books: Gibert, Boulinier and Book Off. All of them suffered quite a lot these last years.

nikanj 4y ago

You can read on the train but you can't read while driving. Surprising nth order effects of city planning, the more car-centric your culture is, the less time the average person has for books

KineticLensman 4y ago
> you can't read while driving Hence audiobooks (and more generally, podcasts)
robertlagrant 4y ago
> Surprising nth order effects of city planning, the more car-centric your culture is, the less time the average person has for books Perhaps this could be a selling point here in the UK. Yes your very late train has once again been cancelled and you now have to get a place on the replacement bus service, but at least you've had some time to read! The stance I'd have is the less travel-centric your life is, the more time you have for reading (or anything else). Big tech making more remote work feasible has opened this up a lot more than city planning can.

chrisseaton 4y ago

> I had always thought that SF had a lot compared to elsewhere Try Hay on Wye in the United Kingdom. 20 second-hand bookshops for a population of 2000.

robin_reala 4y ago
That’s a somewhat specialist case though, given that the only reason anyone’s heard of the place is the literary festivals they host: https://www.hayfestival.com/wales/home https://www.hayfestival.com/wales/home & https://www.hayfestival.com/winter-weekend/home https://www.hayfestival.com/winter-weekend/home

juliendorra 4y ago

There’s probably several factors, including Paris population density (highest in Europe if I remember well), 50%+ car-less families (you can see people reading in the metro), and the fact that literary prizes are evening news worthy events (cultural effect of books and authors being important even to non-readers) But one really important structural factor is that books must be sold at the same price, by law, everywhere (+/- 5%, price fixed by the publisher. So you may pay -5% on Amazon or a retail chain like FNAC compared to a local book shop). This law dates back from the 80s, when book shop retail chain FNAC started to get very successful. Add to that a very efficient book logistics system, and it’s often as fast and nearly as cheap to order a book and get it at a book shop than with Amazon. It’s not all rosy as the system is very concentrated and vertically integrated on the publishers and distributors (wholesale) parts. These publishers+distributors combos get the major part of the revenues, and it’s in their interest to push a crazy number of new books every year (with something like 30% of the stock getting destroyed every year. Book shops can send back books easily and get refunded) Authors and book shops, at the two ends, get a very small percentage of the revenues. French authors are totally dependent on their publishers for every step, from editing to publicity, and usually license all rights from the get go. Book shop have very small margins (I read around 2%!) and even just loosing thrillers or another popular segment to ebooks might make hundreds of book shop collapse ‘suddenly and unexpectedly’…

Semaphor 4y ago
It’s actually almost the same in Germany. I don’t know the details, but we have fixed prices (no +/- wiggle room) and the rest of your post rings true. Though independent book stores have been dying with mainly major chains surviving. This is only for German books, though, foreign languages are not affected by the fixed prices.
- robertlagrant 4y ago
  > Though independent book stores have been dying with mainly major chains surviving. This isn't surprising - larger chains can get economies of scale and spend that money on hiring the best staff / more marketing / more locations / lower delivery costs / faster delivery / nicer shops. Smaller shops not being able to charge more for their books sounds detrimental to their survival.

jcmeyrignac 4y ago

In Paris, there are 3 big second-hand books: Gibert, Boulinier and Book Off. All of them suffered quite a lot these last years.