Bookstore Sentimentalists

A recurring justification I hear from Team Ereader is "well, I won't stop buying books."

You don't need to "stop buying books" to demolish what remains of America's bookstore infrastructure- you need only buy fewer books.
And not that many fewer.

Decades of predatory expansion by chains, the near fatal impact of Amazon & internet sales and new erosion from ereaders has decimated the industry. Of the two big predatory chains that killed off most of the independent new shops, the one that bet wrong on ereaders is going under.

There's a sizable demographic of readers who want the convenience of digital while still thinking of themselves as denizens of the archetypal bookstore. This is magical thinking of the sort I noted earlier in the week-

But even later when my magazine reading went on line, for years in DC my go-to time-killer was to spend some time in a Borders flipping through graphic novels or books. And I would feel sentimental about abusing the place, and usually make sure to buy things there.

Sentimentality doesn't keep bookshops open.

In my town successive waves of change have washed away all the other independent shops and one of the two big chains. Gabby, Bookland, Norwood, Earthling, Novel Experience (both iterations), Leons, Waldenbooks, Borders, they're all gone.
It's B&N and us.

I have friends who unabashedly revel in their ebooks, chortling at the quaint notion of bound paper, contemptuous of wasting time looking for a book in a physical store when the literary treasures of the world are a few clicks away.

That, I can respect.
They won't care when the last shop in town closes because it was just a place to get books and now they get them more conveniently somewhere else.

The sentimentalists, those who claim to love bookstores while acting to undermine their survival....not so much.

If you like bookstores, support them.
And not part-time.
Every title you don't buy from a physical shop is a vote against our survival. Bookstore margins are thin, the business environment is historically toxic for physical retailers and every sale matters.