From: Claudia Holland <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2014 17:11:49 +0000 But, Joe, what is it that you miss about bookstores, if you donĀ¹t miss print books? Claudia Holland On 12/1/14, 7:13 PM, "LIBLICENSE" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]> >Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2014 11:54:50 -0500 > >I read this post just prior to boarding a flight from Los Angeles to >New York. By my estimate well over half the passengers were watching >a movie or sports event on the seat-back video display. So in >addition to the question of print vs. digital books, we have the >competition with other media. My view is that consumer publishing, >insofar as it is a species of entertainment, will be seriously >challenged by the many new media alternatives. In this respect, Apple >is a bigger threat than Amazon. > >As for shelf space at Barnes & Noble, this is much discussed in trade >book circles. We had an unsustainable high point for book shelf space >in the 1990s (the increased shelf space for superstores did not >materially improve sales in the aggregate, so the cost of the retail >operations inevitably would make the model collapse, even without the >introduction of ebooks). A B&N store at that time with 150,000 titles >was not 100% books (calendars, toys, cards, etc. were always part of >the mix), but there is no doubt that calling B&N a bookstore now seems >almost fraudulent. Interestingly, other stores have now begun to sell >books (e.g., Anthropologie). So is the shelf space growing or >shrinking? > >What is clear, though, is that it is shrinking for intellectually >serious books. A clothing boutique may carry books, but probably not >those that the members of this list consider relevant. > >In about 1995 I saw the entire Loeb Classical Library in a Borders on >Michigan Avenue in Chicago. I knew that was simply marketing, an >attempt to make the store seem more serious than it was, to add "tone" >to the off-price books in the front of the store. > >The book business is a small one. It will persist, but over time it >will likely return to its core constituency of serious readers, most >of whom will find their book online. I don't miss print books myself, >but I do miss bookstores. > >Joe Esposito > > >On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 4:49 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]> >> Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 16:11:05 -0500 >> >> Back to my old haunts, here's today's report on the progress of >>e-reading: >> >> There were about 250 people on the train, quite full for Thanksgiving. >> I should have said years ago doing this that I always measure between >> Metropark and Philadelphia. >> >> 114 people were engaged with electronic devices -- laptops, tablets, >> readers, smartphones. I can't count on three hands at once, so I'm >> only approximating when I say that 30-50% of the devices in use were >> smartphones. >> >> 37 people were engaged with paper materials of some kind or other, of >> whom 17 were holding actual paper codex books. (Other paper: >> newspaper, magazines, school notebooks). One of them was the first >> person I have ever seen after many years of looking to be reading a >> volume of Greek literature with the Greek text visible -- a Loeb >> Classical Library volume of Aelian, a minor figure and distinctly an >> advanced taste. (A few weeks ago I did see a gentleman of mature >> years, who proved on investigation to be a person of mature wealth and >> family lineage, reviewing the basics of ancient Greek in the classic >> textbook of Chase and Phillips, which he first used in prep school >> about 60 years ago. Reading Aelian is a large step beyond that: >> enjoyable, without a question, inasmuch as his works are compilations >> of anecdotes and lore of quite dubious value.) >> >> I was, um, er, watching an Inspector Montalbano video on my iPad . . . >> >> Jim O'Donnell