Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

Article in the New York Sun from Monday about how, despite the dominance of the big chain bookstores in New York, and the fact that other venerable indie stores (such as Coliseum books) have recently gone out of business, five new bookstores have opened recently in Manhattan. What I find interesting about these new stores, however, is that they’re either niche bookstores (the Taschen store), or else they’re trying to be much more than just a bookstore, acting more as a book “lounge.” Reminds me of the New Yorker cartoon from years ago of a man in a bookstore asking an employee, “What do you mean you don’t have coffee, you’re a bookstore!” So even though these are not your standard bookstores, I think this is a great development, and actually points toward the bookstore of the future, which will resemble more of a local gift shop than the book superstores of today (Borders, I’m talking to you). In fact, the key to saving the bookstore, especially in an era of rising digital delivery and consumption, is the same thing that’s starting to save journalism: think local. Don’t try to compete with Amazon or Barnes & Noble (not to mention blogs and Myspace); instead, try to do what they can’t do.

From the article: “Yet while [bookstore] closings get attention, bookstores are opening, too. In the last several months, owners have cut ribbons on five new independent bookstores across the city.”
NY Sun: Booksellers Fight Back As 5 New Stores Open