A few months ago, my son was invited to a birthday party. I didn't want to drive back and forth between home and the party, so I hung out in a Barnes and Noble only a few minutes away to get some writing done. I found out this Sunday that the bookstore will close in a couple of weeks. Although I've only been in that location once (there are others closer to me), it made me think about how my relationship with bookstores has changed.
I used to spend a lot more time at bookstores, particularly Barnes and Noble (and also Borders before it went bankrupt). It wasn't just about getting books, though once I found one novel I wanted I'd typically end up buying several. I also enjoyed hanging out in the cafe section, either by myself or with Eugene, but almost always with a drink and/or a treat from the cafe. Bookstores and coffee shops are great places to hang out when you want to get out of the house but want to do something low-key. Of course, I had more time and money for bookstores before I was a mother. (After recovering from my C-section, one of the first places I took Alex was to the local Barnes and Noble.)
These days, I have very little free time to hang out in bookstores. I'm also less inclined to buy paperbacks; most of my reading is either e-books or library books. When I was at the Barnes and Noble, I did browse for a bit after finishing my short story. In particular, I wanted to see if they carried an anthology with one of my stories (they didn't). Most of my book sales are e-books through Amazon, so while it would be nice to see my name on a book cover in a book store, it's not something I feel strongly about. I left that Barnes and Noble having only bought food and drink. These days, I have other places to help me feed my brain. I'm not surprised that one Barnes and Noble is closing; if anything, I'm amazed the chain hasn't gone bankrupt yet. It will be interesting to see what happens after that.
How do you feel about Barnes and Noble? Do you like it, or do you prefer independent bookstores? How often do you visit bookstores, and has that changed? Feel free to answer in the comments.
5 comments:
I used to spend a lot of time in bookshops when I was younger too (not so much Barnes and Noble) but obviouly life gets in the way as we get older. However, i still prefer a good old fashioned paperback and find it sad that bookstores are closing. We now don't have any in our local town which I find shocking.
We buy eBooks now, so I don't often visit a bookstore. Barnes and Noble always seemed a bit overpriced. Preferred the smaller stores.
I still love the idea of bookstores and am inclined to buy books when I'm there, but I never really go to bookstores anymore. For one thing, there aren't any close. Or in the malls, not that I go to malls, either. Basically, any bookstore around takes an effort to get to, and my wife discourages me as much as possible from buying physical books that clutter our space, especially if it's not something I'm going to read immediately.
And, well, it's just cheaper to get books from Amazon. I lot cheaper. It makes it difficult to justify except as an effort to support a local bookstore, which is also out of the way and too small to have anything other than just released books.
The only store we have in town is a BAM and they are so disorganized. I never go in it. I do really miss Waldenbooks. I did so many signings there. Darn Borders for going bankrupt and taking the profitable Waldenbooks with it.
That's too bad, DRC.
I used a B&N membership to help keep books affordable, Alex.
Andrew, I agree it's a lot easier to find books on Amazon than to visit a bookstore, especially with my schedule.
I remember Waldenbooks fondly from my teenage and college years, Diane.
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