Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Another Plea for the Used Books

When it comes to books, I'm pretty impartial.

I love the sensation of buying a brand new book-- feeling the pages crisp between my fingers, reminding me of the peculiarly slick feel of the old edition of the Chronicles of Narnia that I had growing up, the smell it had of slippery paper and dark ink, knowing that an entirely new world waits for me behind a glossy cover and binding which has not yet been cracked from endless readings and wear, pages unbesmirched from the death grip my index finger and thumb will put on them while I reach the climax of the plot, bringing me back to fruitful Christmases and Birthdays and allowance-sprees where I would return to my bedroom and stack the books up as tall as my bed, waiting to be opened...

I also love buying used books, browsing through frumpy, disorganized shelves of musty tomes and well-loved novels that have seen their day and more, the golden yellow pages of the 50s, the beautiful, wood and leaf mold smell of the 60s, musing over past-printings and constantly wondering with a sense of joyful suspense if I will find the one book I am not even actively looking for, a gem hidden among pages and glue and words lost in a mine field of literature...

They're both means of acquiring books that I couldn't do without. Perhaps that makes me a literary two-timer, but I don't care. I'm greedy. I had a library card when I was younger, but I very rarely went to the public library. I would read endlessly out of school libraries because they were there when I was there, and I could not resist wandering down the halls to the rows and rows of entertainment and adventure spread out before me. I spent 8+ hours a day in these academic institutions. Plenty of time to read. Plenty of time to spend lunch breaks nose-deep in a book, recesses shadowed by pages, and even (she says blushingly) hiding opened books under my desk so that I could read during class...

Beyond the school libraries, though, I wanted to own the books. I wanted to possess them and have them close so I could read them again and again and again. I wanted to mark my name in them in a juvenile hand and caress the pages, knowing that these were my private library, the doorway to my thoughts and dreams.

These days there is a lot of back-and-forth argument for who has it worse-- the company book store or the used book store. There's no denying it, book stores in general are having a tough time. It's a difficult economy, and publishing being in the flux that it is doesn't help. But you look at the arguments, look at the facts, and I'd say that both used book stores and company book stores are having equally difficult years, for many different (and many of the same) reasons.

The fact is, everything is 'easier' online. Whether it be eBooks, eReaders, Amazon.com, or other means of acquiring literature via technology rather than an in-person visit to a store, there is now competition for the physical locations we know as book stores. And it comes with Prime free shipping and a greater variety of choices. That causes trouble for both types of book stores, not just one, and each one's strengths give way to the other's weaknesses.

Browsing a used or new book store is fun. It's delightful. It's satisfying. But it doesn't always give us what we're looking for, what we want. Out of print books are not available in Barnes & Noble, for example, and you may find them, maybe, in a used book store if you're lucky. If you're on a mission, though, best to go online.

I do it all the time. I can get wildly cheap books that I can very rarely find anywhere else on Amazon.com. I still love going to book stores of any breed, but if I'm going to buy a book, 7 times out of 10 I'm going to get it online. It's just convenience.

Still, Manta.com states that there are 34,598 bookstores in the US. Give or take, I imagine. That's still quite a lot. That's on average 690 bookstores per state (considering of course per size of state and square mileage and...you get the idea).

Are book stores in trouble? Yes, sure, I would definitely say they are. Is one type's troubles more rampant than the other? I seriously doubt it. I know as many if not more used book stores in my immediate area of living than I do company book stores. The economy will hit people and companies hard, and the recent technological advancements say a lot for printed books of any price or quality. It's all tied together.


No comments:

Post a Comment