I wasn't amazed by the fall of the banks - didn't need a crystal ball to see THAT coming - but I was shocked to hear that Borders is in receivership. We were in the Inverness branch Saturday on an unusual day out and there I was gazing down on browsers, drinking my coffee laced with hazelnut and thinking how much I like being able to browse 'new' bookshops occasionally when pouff! There they are, nearly gone. I hope they get a reprieve of some sort.
The good thing is, according to the Independant today, the pendulum is swinging and a variety of independent bookshops are opening. The bad news is that they are all, so far, in London and Oxford. We do have one in Elgin, so raising a flag here, but only thanks to a wealthy patron who rescued it. Hopefully more wealthy patrons will come out of the woodwork. I really wouldn't like it if the supermarkets and airports were going to be dictating literary taste!!
Can't help thinking it's Amazon's fault. No matter how much my customers bemoan the fact I'm closing they all admit to buying from Amazon when they know what it is they want. Who can blame them? (I do too.) And they buy from the four book-selling charity shops we have in the space of 150 yards of course.
Hard Times for bookshops.
There has been a rash of shop-lifting in town. Sadly one victim was a nice young woman who has a brilliant knick-knack shop, but less sadly (sorry, I know it's not PC to say so but hey...) from the charity shops who are in righteous uproar.
I was glad to close last Christmas and shall be glad to shut the door this year too when Positively My Last Appearance is over. I'm fed up with the folk who assume I'm given the books for free. I'm fed up with the ones who carp about the price of a book when it's both rare and half the price it was last week and therefore probably less than I paid for it. I had both sorts in yesterday. They make me very sour. I nearly refused to sell the 'too expensive' book but bit my tongue in time. Was mopping blood for ages after.
I've also got a heavy cold which may have something to do with the grumps.
2 comments:
Deep grumps here too. Terrible news re Borders, I agree I don't want supermarkets and Amazon to take over either.
Any author I find I like Mick Herron for example, it is almost impossible to find his back catalogue, the library provided some - one in large print [OK] and one on cassettes - only one machine at home and when it was cleaned up the first tape was already too mangled to make sense of.
My Kindle is a great comfort, but many books I want haven't got copyright in this country yet as Kindle is a Yankee Amazon machine; doubly frustrating as Amazon will let me buy the book in all other forms.
At least i have down loaded 50 Dickens and a large wedge of James Joyce for less than a fiver all together.....but that probably spells the death knell of 2nd hand book shops. Serves me right - oh dear I am even more fed up now.
You have a Kindle - aaaargh! Now I know we're all doomed!
What's it like to read from and can you drop it in the bath?
Post a Comment