Borders stalls book payments, doubts survival in e-book era • Hacker News Board

Re: Borders stalls book payments, doubts survival in e-book era

#31

Post by wyclif » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 5:27 AM UTC

klbarry wrote: post #9

tjr wrote: post #6

I still buy printed books. I almost never buy any books at a major book retail store like Borders or BN because they carry very very little that I am interested in buying. They used to stock more that I was interested in, but their stock has changed over the years. I suppose they were aiming for a more middle-of-the-road, palatable-to-all sort of stock selection, but I for one have basically been driven away. I initi…

Not to mention, even if Borders had it, Amazon would be cheaper anyway, and Amazon's reviews are a huge source of book information to me.

Amazon reviews are seriously broken. I'm surprised anyone would want to defend them other than Amazon employees or partners.

Sure, there are some good reviews on Amazon by credible critics and book lovers, but they have increasingly become like searching for a needle in a stack of needles. Most reviews I read, even on academic books that the hoi polloi don't read much, variate a great deal and swing wildly between 5 star ratings and 0. They are also filled with petty invective, academic flame wars that have no place on a good review site, and authors faking reviews for their own books (or those of their scholastic rivals).

Re: Borders stalls book payments, doubts survival in e-book era

#32

Post by yesno » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 5:28 AM UTC

Sometime I wonder what would happen in the near-future?

Many brick-n-mortar stores (musics/cd, books, video-rental) where people used to sort of hang-out are now closing their doors and filing bankruptcy. Many young people are losing their jobs.

A few days ago I saw Amazon selling video games about $10 cheaper than EBGames (this particular game: Call of Duty Black Ops).

These are places where kids and teenagers used to hang out or even work during the summer.

Automation is replacing humans. Not sure if that's good or bad.

As much as I'd like to buy items cheaper, I'm a bit worried with the repercussion of my action.

Re: Borders stalls book payments, doubts survival in e-book era

#33

Post by wyclif » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 5:33 AM UTC

Qz wrote: post #5

kongqiu wrote: post #2

What is the future of bookselling? As much as I understand the efficiencies of Amazon, browsing through a bookstore can't be replaced by online; it's a different experience.

I'm under thirty, but I can't stand e-books and will be reading from dead trees until they stop printing on them.

Voted you up because I like the sentiment behind your comment and love printed books, but I still am eco-friendly enough to think it's better to not cut down the trees if we don't have to.

Re: Borders stalls book payments, doubts survival in e-book era

#34

Post by QuantumGood » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 5:44 AM UTC

Starbucks should sell more books, and find the right size for their "mega store"...which would basically be the size of the old small neighborhood bookstores. They have the atmosphere similar to what people loved about old small neighborhood bookstores.

Re: Borders stalls book payments, doubts survival in e-book era

#35

Post by robryan » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 5:57 AM UTC

wyclif wrote: post #31

klbarry wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention, even if Borders had it, Amazon would be cheaper anyway, and Amazon's reviews are a huge source of book information to me.

Amazon reviews are seriously broken. I'm surprised anyone would want to defend them other than Amazon employees or partners. Sure, there are some good reviews on Amazon by credible critics and book lovers, but they have increasingly become like searching for a needle in a stack of needles. Most reviews I read, even on academic books that the hoi polloi don't read much, variate a great deal and swing wildly between 5…

I find them generally informative, it depends on the book I guess. If something has 20+ reviews you can easily get a pretty good feel for it. I'd agree with you on obscure stuff with only a handful of reviews. As long as you don't have to trust any single reviewer there is a lot of good information to be had, same with IMDB really, every popular movie has reviews at each extreme, but given enough choice in reviews you can get a decent feel for it.

Re: Borders stalls book payments, doubts survival in e-book era

#36

Post by meric » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 4:14 PM UTC

tjr wrote: post #11

joeguilmette wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i dont have the attention span for a book. that said, i read voraciously from a variety of resources using instapaper. i read a minimum of 2-3 hours per day everyday. i haven't opened a book in over a year, and haven't finished a book in years.

Books are random-access; you don't necessarily need to read the entire book to benefit from it. But anyway. As a non-book-reader, where do you see local bookstores heading? I suspect that nothing they could do to their stock or their prices would draw you in?

  The shift could feed Amazon, Apple *and other survivors* 
  with extra customers.

As the market for physical copies are dwindling, total profits in the industry decreases and some companies will decide to exit. This will reduce the decline of profitability for the remaining businesses and thus reduce the rate of companies exiting the industry.

The local book store may survive yet.

Re: Borders stalls book payments, doubts survival in e-book era

#37

Post by anigbrowl » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 9:24 PM UTC

wyclif wrote: post #33

Qz wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm under thirty, but I can't stand e-books and will be reading from dead trees until they stop printing on them.

Voted you up because I like the sentiment behind your comment and love printed books, but I still am eco-friendly enough to think it's better to not cut down the trees if we don't have to.

Books are kept, usually. Magazines are a far greater waste of paper - though that said, most paper is from farmed wood nowadays.