I wonder if this will turn out to be the kind of mistake discussed in Scott's "Seeing Like a State". Planners and architects see something bustling and chaotic and enforce a new system made of straight lines, and in doing so eliminate something essential.
Besides all the capitalist and efficiency debate, I grew up buying and reading books from here. I used to know many of the shop owners personally. It happened several times that they kept a particular book on the side for me to see it first. As they happen to know my liking and reading habit. I could even bargain, in those days when money was scarce. I have fond memories of walking down those streets in hit summer afternoon browsing through thousands of books and pondering what to buy. Thanks to those stalls I got introduced and could read world literature, philosophy, science ... I will be extremely sad to see it gone! Please, if anyone is listening, please stop this.
I'm a huge packrat and have quite a few old books (especially tech titles. I'm never ready to admit I won't be coding Visual Basic again one day....) But I can see the future. I've been accumulating titles on my Kindle, and I really like using it.
I think paper book sales are doomed for long-term decline.
> I think paper book sales are doomed for long-term decline.
I'm not sure that's true. I own a Kindle but I find it's less expensive to purchase new paper books just about every time. Sure there's the occasional time when a book is on offer in the Kindle store, but it's pretty rare. I haven't re-charged my Kindle for more than a couple of years.
Also there's a bunch of authors I've followed and read over the last 40 years whose books I always buy in hardback whenever they publish something new.
When it comes to technical books paper wins every time, simply because it's far easier to jump about the pages. Also diagrams, graphs, code samples, that kinda thing are pretty awful in current e-book implementations.
And then for many of us there's nothing quite like the feel of a paper book and, if you have space, building a physical library of stuff read, and stuff to be read and being able to peruse it when looking for the next thing to read. Though this does make for a lot of boxes each time you move house.
I think paper book sales are doomed for long-term decline.
On what grounds, may I ask? There currently doesn't seem to be a long-term declining trend in paper book sales, so are you expecting a significant change in technology or society that will cause a long-term decline? Or (possibly) did you conclude this (quite reasonably) when there was such a trend and haven't checked recently?
I'm curious as to whether or not the mall will be able to keep up. A student is quoted as saying "this place is outdated, the roads are dirty, the hygiene is poor, and in the summer it’s unbearably hot." I can see this being a side effect of the vendors focusing solely on a better selection at a lower price, because those are concrete metrics that they compete with others on. At the end of the day, it's all that really matters; if a place doesn't have the book I want at a price I can afford, any other conveniences mean nothing.
If I need the books, the uncomfortable location with a huge inventory that don't need to pad prices to deal with rent seems like the obvious first stop.
The vast majority of books printed up to the present day will never be available in digital format. Therefore, as long as there is interest to the older material, the secondhand book stores will thrive in one form or another.
It might be a shame for an old tradition to go away, but in a capitalist world, the usual reason something gets replaced is there is a more efficient way to do it.
In this case, it's ebooks and learning over the internet. The need for the paper book is diminished, and it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to disseminate knowledge.
> it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to disseminate knowledge.
Those who earn a living doing that might disagree about it being a waste of labour. A job that provides an income is useful to society even if you don't consider the thing being worked on to be worthwhile. (FWIW I prefer physical books to reading on a screen).
Physical books have their advantages. Specially when reading technical books you find yourself going back and forth way too often to read a digital copy. Also no need to worry about batteries, less eye strain, etc.
In this case it is the online second hand stores (abebooks, amazon, etc) the ones that are killinh the physical stores.
[+] [-] EliRivers|6 years ago|reply
Maybe not; maybe it'll be a great success.
[+] [-] rcshubhadeep|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RickJWagner|6 years ago|reply
I think paper book sales are doomed for long-term decline.
[+] [-] teh_klev|6 years ago|reply
I'm not sure that's true. I own a Kindle but I find it's less expensive to purchase new paper books just about every time. Sure there's the occasional time when a book is on offer in the Kindle store, but it's pretty rare. I haven't re-charged my Kindle for more than a couple of years.
Also there's a bunch of authors I've followed and read over the last 40 years whose books I always buy in hardback whenever they publish something new.
When it comes to technical books paper wins every time, simply because it's far easier to jump about the pages. Also diagrams, graphs, code samples, that kinda thing are pretty awful in current e-book implementations.
And then for many of us there's nothing quite like the feel of a paper book and, if you have space, building a physical library of stuff read, and stuff to be read and being able to peruse it when looking for the next thing to read. Though this does make for a lot of boxes each time you move house.
[+] [-] EliRivers|6 years ago|reply
On what grounds, may I ask? There currently doesn't seem to be a long-term declining trend in paper book sales, so are you expecting a significant change in technology or society that will cause a long-term decline? Or (possibly) did you conclude this (quite reasonably) when there was such a trend and haven't checked recently?
[+] [-] billpollock|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seabird|6 years ago|reply
If I need the books, the uncomfortable location with a huge inventory that don't need to pad prices to deal with rent seems like the obvious first stop.
[+] [-] noyesno|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] londons_explore|6 years ago|reply
In this case, it's ebooks and learning over the internet. The need for the paper book is diminished, and it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to disseminate knowledge.
[+] [-] saint_fiasco|6 years ago|reply
Their competition is not the internet. It's a better bookstore with lower prices in an air conditioned shopping mall.
[+] [-] johnr2|6 years ago|reply
Those who earn a living doing that might disagree about it being a waste of labour. A job that provides an income is useful to society even if you don't consider the thing being worked on to be worthwhile. (FWIW I prefer physical books to reading on a screen).
[+] [-] WhiteSage|6 years ago|reply
In this case it is the online second hand stores (abebooks, amazon, etc) the ones that are killinh the physical stores.
[+] [-] Angostura|6 years ago|reply
Increasingly it seems to me that things get replaced simply because a company can make more revenue.
* Subscription software - 'more efficient'? Not really - just a guaranteed revenue stream
* planned obsolescence in products - 'more efficient'? No.
* "Books" that you don't really own, that you can't easily lend to friends or resell? Clearly all about the efficiency.
[+] [-] mcguire|6 years ago|reply