The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market
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Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market
#2It might be a shame for an old tradition to go away, but in a capitalist world, the usual reason something gets replaced is there is a more efficient way to do it.
In this case, it's ebooks and learning over the internet. The need for the paper book is diminished, and it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to disseminate knowledge.
Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market
#3It might be a shame for an old tradition to go away, but in a capitalist world, the usual reason something gets replaced is there is a more efficient way to do it. In this case, it's ebooks and learning over the internet. The need for the paper book is diminished, and it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to dissemin…
> but in a capitalist world, the usual reason something gets replaced is there is a more efficient way to do it.
Increasingly it seems to me that things get replaced simply because a company can make more revenue.
* Subscription software - 'more efficient'? Not really - just a guaranteed revenue stream
* planned obsolescence in products - 'more efficient'? No.
* "Books" that you don't really own, that you can't easily lend to friends or resell? Clearly all about the efficiency.
Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market
#4It might be a shame for an old tradition to go away, but in a capitalist world, the usual reason something gets replaced is there is a more efficient way to do it. In this case, it's ebooks and learning over the internet. The need for the paper book is diminished, and it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to dissemin…
Physical books have their advantages. Specially when reading technical books you find yourself going back and forth way too often to read a digital copy. Also no need to worry about batteries, less eye strain, etc.
In this case it is the online second hand stores (abebooks, amazon, etc) the ones that are killinh the physical stores.
Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market
#5Besides all the capitalist and efficiency debate, I grew up buying and reading books from here. I used to know many of the shop owners personally. It happened several times that they kept a particular book on the side for me to see it first. As they happen to know my liking and reading habit. I could even bargain, in those days when money was scarce. I have fond memories of walking down those streets in hit summer afternoon browsing through thousands of books and pondering what to buy. Thanks to those stalls I got introduced and could read world literature, philosophy, science ... I will be extremely sad to see it gone! Please, if anyone is listening, please stop this.
Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market
#6It might be a shame for an old tradition to go away, but in a capitalist world, the usual reason something gets replaced is there is a more efficient way to do it. In this case, it's ebooks and learning over the internet. The need for the paper book is diminished, and it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to dissemin…
> it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to disseminate knowledge.
Those who earn a living doing that might disagree about it being a waste of labour. A job that provides an income is useful to society even if you don't consider the thing being worked on to be worthwhile. (FWIW I prefer physical books to reading on a screen).
Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market
#7I wonder if this will turn out to be the kind of mistake discussed in Scott's "Seeing Like a State". Planners and architects see something bustling and chaotic and enforce a new system made of straight lines, and in doing so eliminate something essential.
Maybe not; maybe it'll be a great success.
Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market
#8It might be a shame for an old tradition to go away, but in a capitalist world, the usual reason something gets replaced is there is a more efficient way to do it. In this case, it's ebooks and learning over the internet. The need for the paper book is diminished, and it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to dissemin…
> it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to disseminate knowledge. Those who earn a living doing that might disagree about it being a waste of labour. A job that provides an income is useful to society even if you don't consider the thing being worked on to be worthwhile. (FWIW I prefer physical books to reading on a…
I agree with you, but isn't the very subject we're discussing that these jobs may no longer provide income?
Does it follow that a job that does not provide income is not useful to society even if you consider the thing being worked on to be worthwhile?
Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market
#9It might be a shame for an old tradition to go away, but in a capitalist world, the usual reason something gets replaced is there is a more efficient way to do it. In this case, it's ebooks and learning over the internet. The need for the paper book is diminished, and it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to dissemin…
Even if people prefer paper books, that used book shop in the article is still doomed.
Their competition is not the internet. It's a better bookstore with lower prices in an air conditioned shopping mall.
Re: The Uncertain Future of the World’s Largest Secondhand Book Market
#10It might be a shame for an old tradition to go away, but in a capitalist world, the usual reason something gets replaced is there is a more efficient way to do it. In this case, it's ebooks and learning over the internet. The need for the paper book is diminished, and it is a waste of our human labour for thousands of people to be working book stalls for entire lifetimes when there is a more efficient way to dissemin…
Physical books have their advantages. Specially when reading technical books you find yourself going back and forth way too often to read a digital copy. Also no need to worry about batteries, less eye strain, etc. In this case it is the online second hand stores (abebooks, amazon, etc) the ones that are killinh the physical stores.
I wish I could like reading certain technical books in dead tree format, but I recently bought both the digital and dead tree versions of the Pragmatic Programmer, 20th anniversary edition; and I really couldn’t stand the lack of colour syntax highlighting and colour diagrams in the dead tree version. Mind you, I bought from InformIT, so it was definitely not counterfeit; it was just the printing quality that the authors/publisher chose.
Plus, with a digital version like epub, I could change font size and let it reflow, change the colour theme to sepia in Apple’s Books app or Calibre, and it would still be beautifully formatted.