Independent bookstores vs. Amazon: Buying books online is better for authors, better for the economy, and better for you. – Slate Magazine

Independent bookstores vs. Amazon: Buying books online is better for authors, better for the economy, and better for you. – Slate Magazine

That's the thesis, anyway. A few good points are made in the article, especially the idea that you can get better recommendations online than in person (which is true but only up to a point).

But the piece is also terribly biased in favor of the economy, rather than the culture, of the book trade — and when he calls local bookstores "cultish, moldering institutions", you can guess where his initial bias lies.

– Serdar Yegulalp

  • http://www.stevensavage.com/ Steven Savage

    There’s a point here about culture, and my first thoughts are maybe our culture is being constrained by our business models.
    Amazon did its new-fangled thing and it works. We have moves to try and preserve bookstore culture which are laudable, but I wonder if at times those are TOO tied to the economic models of the past – or present.
    In short, if we want to save bookstore/reading/literacy culture – what are we trying to save, and how can we put that first?

  • http://profile.typepad.com/genjipress Serdar (Genji Press)

    The biggest thing we’re trying to save, I think, is the space that is created by such bookstores. There’s something about the quality of the advice given to me by a living human being, standing in front of you and giving you nonverbal cues. Amazon’s recommendation system and reviews are useful, but impersonal. An algorithm is not the same thing as someone whose tastes you trust. Of course, in 20 years, we might well have forgotten about the latter because we simply don’t experience it anymore — but I wonder how badly we will long for it without knowing what it is.

  • http://www.stevensavage.com/ Steven Savage

    I think we’re in a strange race with technology – social media and the like help us remember socialization and its importance, but also it’s transforming things very quickly an is disruptive.