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This was much fun too read. What I really would like to know is how book stores will look in 20 years? It seems the author sees her store more as a hobby and is

This was much fun too read. What I really would like to know is how book stores will look in 20 years? It seems the author sees her store more as a hobby and is not really concerned about the future?

dsr_ 15y ago
Independent brick bookstores are going to look a lot like what's described here: some new books, but mostly used. Run on a very-slightly-profitable basis, in the cheapest commercial rental space available. One proprietor, who does most of the work, and occasional after-school or summer help. All the inventory will be on the web, thanks to a phone app that turns a picture of a book's cover into a full catalog listing. Prices will be depressed to rock-bottom, and some variant of the EBay "1 cent plus shipping" scheme will be the rule for anything not currently in demand. In twenty years, your average $50 ebook reader will have a 300 dpi full-color full-motion transflective screen, readable in sunlight or with a backlight. Most of the weight will be battery. It will have a tiny CPU and a relatively studly GPU, a small amount of permanent storage (less than a terabyte) and a short distance wireless network link, which will feed your headphones if you want sound, or connect to your phone or your house networks. There will be a secondary screen on the back which displays the book's cover. You will have the option of changing that to anything else you want to display. Many people will not bother to buy them, because they already carry a phone that can do all that, just with a smaller screen.
- jdpage 15y ago
  I find this very sad. I do nearly all of my reading with dead tree books (I simply don't find e-readers nearly as satisfying), and if I want a book the first place I check is the used bookstore up the road. I tend to accumulate books faster than I have time to read them, and by the end of my first semester at college I had filled the woefully tiny (1 meter square) bookcase I brought with me and begun to overflow onto the windowsill and my desk. Surely there are other people who are the same way?
  - sanderjd 15y ago
    Yes, I am this way as well, but I think of it as a kind of allowance of irrationality that I have to make up for in other ways. I love dead-tree books, but eBooks are better in pretty much every way. The bright side is that there are plenty of used books that will continue circulating through stores and private collections for many many years, and they'll be cheap.
    - FreakLegion 15y ago
      I can't write all over the pages of an ebook the way I can a print book. That, unfortunately, makes them almost completely useless to me and many others.
      - smackfu 15y ago
        Well, you can't YET. It's not especially difficult from a technical side.
      - shabble 15y ago
        ...yet. Decent digitisation / handwriting recognition should take care of that, and will probably be ultimately more useful than physical notes, since you'll be able to search, edit, or send them to other people.
  - cobralibre 15y ago
    I'm the same way. It began when I was an undergraduate: the sight of crowded bookshelves in a professor's office – one actually sagging under its load – flipped the crazy switch in my brain. After I got my first real job, the project of accumulation began. Having a large home library is not without its problems, but it's also a real source of joy. My only regret is not taking the time to learn some basic carpentry skills. I would hate to do serious research in a world of ebooks – and any sufficiently serious reader becomes a researcher – but for general use, they probably are a good technology for most readers. Defenders of the paper book need to remember that mass reading of paper books is a historically recent phenomenon, for some values of "recent".
DanBC 15y ago
20 years? In 20 years there will be very few bookshops. There will be a few niche "artisan" booksellers, which serve only old fogeys and whatever Hipsters will be called in 20 years time.
- fogus 15y ago
  So the evolution of hipster will start with those whom gush about e-readers to those whom gush about paperbacks?
  - jerf 15y ago
    I'd submit we're already there. I've read at least three articles linked on HN alone in which the author comes to praise eBooks but feels they must desperately sing bizarrely tepid paens to paper books lest they lose their hipster creds.

This was much fun too read. What I really would like to know is how book stores will look in 20 years? It seems the author sees her store more as a hobby and is not really concerned about the future?

dsr_ 15y ago

Independent brick bookstores are going to look a lot like what's described here: some new books, but mostly used. Run on a very-slightly-profitable basis, in the cheapest commercial rental space available. One proprietor, who does most of the work, and occasional after-school or summer help. All the inventory will be on the web, thanks to a phone app that turns a picture of a book's cover into a full catalog listing. Prices will be depressed to rock-bottom, and some variant of the EBay "1 cent plus shipping" scheme will be the rule for anything not currently in demand. In twenty years, your average $50 ebook reader will have a 300 dpi full-color full-motion transflective screen, readable in sunlight or with a backlight. Most of the weight will be battery. It will have a tiny CPU and a relatively studly GPU, a small amount of permanent storage (less than a terabyte) and a short distance wireless network link, which will feed your headphones if you want sound, or connect to your phone or your house networks. There will be a secondary screen on the back which displays the book's cover. You will have the option of changing that to anything else you want to display. Many people will not bother to buy them, because they already carry a phone that can do all that, just with a smaller screen.

jdpage 15y ago
I find this very sad. I do nearly all of my reading with dead tree books (I simply don't find e-readers nearly as satisfying), and if I want a book the first place I check is the used bookstore up the road. I tend to accumulate books faster than I have time to read them, and by the end of my first semester at college I had filled the woefully tiny (1 meter square) bookcase I brought with me and begun to overflow onto the windowsill and my desk. Surely there are other people who are the same way?
- sanderjd 15y ago
  Yes, I am this way as well, but I think of it as a kind of allowance of irrationality that I have to make up for in other ways. I love dead-tree books, but eBooks are better in pretty much every way. The bright side is that there are plenty of used books that will continue circulating through stores and private collections for many many years, and they'll be cheap.
  - FreakLegion 15y ago
    I can't write all over the pages of an ebook the way I can a print book. That, unfortunately, makes them almost completely useless to me and many others.
    - smackfu 15y ago
      Well, you can't YET. It's not especially difficult from a technical side.
    - shabble 15y ago
      ...yet. Decent digitisation / handwriting recognition should take care of that, and will probably be ultimately more useful than physical notes, since you'll be able to search, edit, or send them to other people.
- cobralibre 15y ago
  I'm the same way. It began when I was an undergraduate: the sight of crowded bookshelves in a professor's office – one actually sagging under its load – flipped the crazy switch in my brain. After I got my first real job, the project of accumulation began. Having a large home library is not without its problems, but it's also a real source of joy. My only regret is not taking the time to learn some basic carpentry skills. I would hate to do serious research in a world of ebooks – and any sufficiently serious reader becomes a researcher – but for general use, they probably are a good technology for most readers. Defenders of the paper book need to remember that mass reading of paper books is a historically recent phenomenon, for some values of "recent".

DanBC 15y ago

20 years? In 20 years there will be very few bookshops. There will be a few niche "artisan" booksellers, which serve only old fogeys and whatever Hipsters will be called in 20 years time.

fogus 15y ago
So the evolution of hipster will start with those whom gush about e-readers to those whom gush about paperbacks?
- jerf 15y ago
  I'd submit we're already there. I've read at least three articles linked on HN alone in which the author comes to praise eBooks but feels they must desperately sing bizarrely tepid paens to paper books lest they lose their hipster creds.