A Future for Bookstores

June 28, 2013

Reading text lists of titles and gridded book covers images can’t compete with the in-store bookstore experience. There’s something magical about browsing books with your head tilted sideways to read titles on book spines and seeing towering walls of books on shelves. People say that “print is dying” but I hope that some experiences will never change. Dear all bookstores, please don’t die!

future_bookstores_20px

What’s your take? Would you miss the bookstore experience if it would to disappear like video stores? Are you a fan of printed books or digital copies?

This is a Comic!
  • Scott

    Yes to both. I prefer print, but digital is okay for fiction. Digital is not preferred for technical reading (educational, etc.).

    • Angela

      I agree :)

  • R. Scot Johns

    I would love this bookstore! Paper is a waste of space, print books are inefficient to distribute and costly to produce, and local retail outlets can only offer so many titles, which eliminates many of the most interesting genres and subjects out there. The real reason Amazon has been so successful (which pundits so often forget) is that they offer ever title available, which is something physical bookstores simply cannot do. This would eliminate that problem.

    • insanityfiler

      Dafuq is rong wit u? bookz dont run out ov barerys, dont roon evrithing if wet, and dont freez!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • insanityfiler

      wtf iz rong wit u? BOOKZ R FUR TEH KINGZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! E REEDERZ R FUR TEH MOST PEASENTLY OF TEH PEASANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! p.s i have nuting aginst pezants i dust want 2 mak a point

  • omnidesigns

    Love this bookstore. Is it going to have artificial book smell? :)

    • Angela

      Lol! I love the smell of new books :)

  • Robert

    The smell of a book is better than sweat and whatever may get on your tablet.

  • Cara

    I’d take a book any day, even though I’ve tried an e-reader. There’s just something you don’t get out of reading a screen.

  • Samalama

    I need bookstores!

  • AT

    You guys assume we will always have electricity. When the penguinocalypse comes, will you burn your ereader for warmth?

  • klishnor

    Modern storage methods are OK, but remember the cautionary tale of Domesday 2 (aka BBC Domesday). In 1984 to 86, The BBC in co-operation with several high tech companies, made a new version of The Domesday Book. Alongside census information from 1981 it had news articles, music and spoken comments, photographs, videos, and even virtual tours of famous sites, The information was stored on 2 Laserdiscs and was controlled by a BBC model B computer with a second 6502 processor fitted.

    In 2001 there was a near panic when it was realised that there weren’t many of the controlling computers left, and very few of the Laserdisc readers (estimates were that there were only 6 left in the world). Transferring the census data wasn’t hard, but the audio tracks. photo’s and videos were made before MP3 and JPEG (let alone MPEG) standards were published, so they were in an analog format with separately stored digital overlays.on the visual items. Converting those was a major pain. State of the art had become so obsolete it was nearly extinct in less than 20 years.

    On the other hand I can go to a bookshelf, take down a book printed in 1800 (or even earlier) and read it without any problems (OK, assuming it’s in a language I can read).

  • insanityfiler

    Books dont freese, ruin everything if they get wet, and there’s something that I just can’t let go of about getting a flashlight and reading under the blankets. Dont go. Dont leave me.

  • I’m guilty of being an Amazon frequent shopper, but I still I love exploring independent bookstores. Going to the bookstore is one of my favorite outings with my boys (6 & 8) – I want them to know & love the bookstore experience.

    Here in the Boston metro area we are blessed to have a plethora of bookstore options – New England Mobile Book Fair (the antithesis of Barnes & Nobles, 2×4 & plywood shelves), Harvard Book Store (not affiliated with the university, awesome used book department hidden in the basement), Brookline Booksmith and Wellesley Books – but I know there are many communities that no longer have a single bookstore (big or small, independent or chain) and that makes me sad.

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  • I tend to download e-books but if I like them enough I go buy a physical copy.