I'm sure it's very sad for fans of this bookstore, but the part about e-books being partly responsible seems off, since the share of book sales which are e-books plateaued in about 2012 and has even started to slump: https://www.extremetech.com/electronics/248719-e-reader-sale...
Why the Seattle Mystery Bookshop Must Close
31–40 of 77 posts
Re: Why the Seattle Mystery Bookshop Must Close
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Contrarily, I buy physical books and have stopped using my kindle entirely. I prefer to own the book, and not merely a license to use a DRM'ed instance of it.
And then there's non-fiction, which never really works right as an ebook.
I have hundreds of non-fiction ebooks. It works just fine most of the time. Non-fiction doesn't mean "programming books". The vast majority of non-fiction is plain text with no graphics, maps, or special content whatsoever.
Re: Why the Seattle Mystery Bookshop Must Close
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
And then there's non-fiction, which never really works right as an ebook.
I have hundreds of non-fiction ebooks. It works just fine most of the time. Non-fiction doesn't mean "programming books". The vast majority of non-fiction is plain text with no graphics, maps, or special content whatsoever.
Footnotes, weirdly, always seem to be a problem. Also, paging back to find a poorly remembered reference is hard.
Re: Why the Seattle Mystery Bookshop Must Close
#34While I find this article sad, it's ultimately inevitable as far as I see it. I read a lot, and I enjoy collecting books, but I ceased buying physical books a long time ago. I've started backfilling my ebook collection based on my old physical collections. At some point, I will be able to find digital replacements for 99% of my physical book collections and I will eventually find a decent way to digitize the rest. Ul…
I keenly pirate ebooks because I travel a great deal and I find a Kindle a handy, lightweight way to carry a large collection with me. However, I am still keenly buying paper books, too: eventually I will get tired of moving around so much, and it will be nice to have a home library to browse around in during my later years. Plus, there are certain genres like poetry that simply aren't enjoyable to read in ebook form. No reason people can't do both formats.
Re: Why the Seattle Mystery Bookshop Must Close
#35I'm sure it's very sad for fans of this bookstore, but the part about e-books being partly responsible seems off, since the share of book sales which are e-books plateaued in about 2012 and has even started to slump: https://www.extremetech.com/electronics/248719-e-reader-sale...
The share of book sales which are ebooks from major publishers has declined, largely because they're, yup, overpricing the ebooks to avoid cutting into print sales.
Indy is doing fine.
Re: Why the Seattle Mystery Bookshop Must Close
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have hundreds of non-fiction ebooks. It works just fine most of the time. Non-fiction doesn't mean "programming books". The vast majority of non-fiction is plain text with no graphics, maps, or special content whatsoever.
Footnotes, weirdly, always seem to be a problem. Also, paging back to find a poorly remembered reference is hard.
Footnotes is one of my complaints about Kindle non-fiction. And personally I love using them. Not in the authoritative documentation sense but in the parenthetical commentary that you might be interested in but which I don’t really want to break the flow of writing to provide.
A lot of non-fiction works ok on Kindle but it can be a bit hit or miss. I do generally prefer ebooks though just to decrease clutter at home and because I do a lot of long form reading while traveling.
Re: Why the Seattle Mystery Bookshop Must Close
#37I can only point to one quibble: * Those who have benefited from the exposure and attention of little shops, who are so grateful for our help launching them into bestsellerdom suddenly do not wish to use their power and leverage to help those who gave them attention and benefits. “I contacted sales and all the tip-ins went to Barnes and Noble. I have no control over that…” Well who the hell has more control that a ma…
Tom Clancy died in 2013.
These big shot writers always have some excuse.
Re: Why the Seattle Mystery Bookshop Must Close
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe someone ordered a bunch of submarines (stories). http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html
If so, they are doing a poor job: this makes Seattle look less interesting to me. It is a great slice of the times though
> If so, they are doing a poor job: this makes Seattle look less interesting to me.
Perhaps not. It could be Portland doing it. :-)
Re: Why the Seattle Mystery Bookshop Must Close
#39I'm deeply saddened to hear that the Seattle Mystery Bookshop is closing. This feels like something easily missed in today's automation-based economy; the ability to go to an expert and get quality recommendations is not to be missed. Seattle Mystery Bookshop was only one of many excellent book stores in the Seattle area, but it seems that their number is diminishing by the day. I can only assume that that trend hold…
Is the major benefit an expert to give you recommendations? How is this different from any online medium like Reddit or Facebook where an expert can do the same thing, without a local constraint?
Let’s say I want to read some new fantasy.
I go to /r/fantasy and ask for recommendations. I will probably get someone recommending goddamn Malazan* no matter how applicable it is to what I asked for. I will also get a lot of recs that are just a title, maybe a title and an author, with no further info. Some authors who hang out there will pimp their own books. Maybe someone recommends Name Of The Wind and a mini-flamewar about book 3 taking a decade and counting happens. I end up with a lot of unfiltered recommendations, and an overwhelming amount of research to do on them.
I go to a good bookstore. I can wander into the SF section and find a whole bunch of staff recommendation cards on the shelves next to things they’ve loved. Maybe there’s a list of Hugo and Nebula winners. Maybe some new stuff the average reader hasn’t heard of. Maybe a “if you liked THIS THING then try THIS OTHER THING” card on the shelf points me to something new. I’ve got a fairly small selection of recommendations, curated by people whose job is partially to keep up with new fiction and recommend the great new stuff. And maybe something outside my genre comfort zone catches my eye on the way to the SF/F section...
Also it is TONS easier to get an idea of just how long a book is when you’re picking one up off the shelves. One cover image and maybe a little tiny text note of how big the file is on Amazon’s page is a lot less information about the sheer size of the story I’m considering picking up.
* /r/fantasy loves this turgid-ass sprawling account of someone’s D&D campaign, I finally tried reading the first book and gave up after three chapters, then got told that “everyone knows it doesn’t pick up until book 3” and life is way too short for that IMHO...
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TL;DR: Reddit ain't gonna give you professional recommendations. Reddit will give you a bunch of recommendations of stuff twentysomething guys with a ton of free time on their hands like.
Re: Why the Seattle Mystery Bookshop Must Close
#40"Then, too, there was me. I don’t have the easiest personality and I rub some/many people the wrong way. I can be too impatient and prickly and more than a few people have referred to me as a curmudgeon. I am all of that. I have always known that I have been the shop’s greatest drawback and I know it contributed, in some way, to the fall in sales."
This is the reason that I have not shopped at bookshops for nearly 20 years.
Service at small bookshops varies from indifferent to rude.
I almost always receive polite and helpfull service when I buy a $2 coffee or a $15 collection of groceries at Aldi.
Why are bookshop staff so indifferent and unhelpful when I am buying $50 of books ?
I would rather interact with a mindless algorithm than with the staff at bookshops.