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What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

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Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#91

Post by shever73 »

waspight wrote: post #29
thundergolfer wrote: post #8

I have come to value 2nd hand bookstores so much in day to day life that I maintain it as an almost 'must have' when assessing living locations. Great coffee shops are a dime a dozen in reasonably affluent areas, but a good 2nd hand bookshop adds so much warmth and charm to an area. I don't have any in walking distance from where I live right now, but I'm moving to NYC soon and will aim to correct that. (Shouldn't be…

Just curious, why is second hand book stores that important? I imagine that everything worth reading is available on Amazon and rated in Goodreads. I am just curious and hopefully I am totally wrong as well.

This is a thoughtful question. For me, it's the personal contact and supporting a local business. Amazon actively (and knowingly) harms the book trade and ignores the fact that its third-party sellers sell counterfeit items.

Browsing a second-hand book store is just one surprise after another. I've found books I never knew existed, but instantly fell in love with. I whiled away many hours in second hand bookshops when I visited Edinburgh.

When it comes to new books, making a purchase at a local book store can really make a difference. Last year, I wanted to upgrade my ebooks of The Art Of Programming to the print editions. I could buy it from Amazon, but asking my local book store to order in the items was a wonderful experience on so many levels. The cost was a little, but not a significant amount, higher, but it allowed for some great interactions in the shop. Now, I pop in every couple of weeks, have a chat with the owner and get fantastic recommendations.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#92

Post by teddyh »

erickhill wrote: post #47

Plus, small local bookstores have no idea who you are (in general) when you walk in the front door. No tracking codes, no "browsing history" in your back pocket. You get to have full and total anonymity (even if you're a regular, your path through the store will be yours and yours alone). You can browse the aisles and look at any old book's spine you please, pull it off the shelf and read the inside cover or maybe so…

This is overwhelmingly the reason why I prefer to shop local instead of buying anything online.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#93

Post by rr808 »

WolfeReader wrote: post #42
rr808 wrote: post #34

Meh, I really dont miss bookstores, and I suspect most people who claim to love them are exaggerating. I dont read as much as I used to, my local library is good and online is much cheaper and convenient. What is cool is second hand books if you can get browse for something interesting cheap that you didn't know you wanted.

"I suspect most people who claim to love them are exaggerating." I can't imagine why a person would either think, or write, this sentence. Most people are being honest when they say they enjoy a thing.

My reasoning is that loads of people I meet say they love books and bookstores - but when I go to one of the few bookstores left in my area they're mostly empty, or usually mostly families looking for kids books.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#94

Post by jhbadger »

SeanLuke wrote: post #90
jhbadger wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you are making a reference to 1998's "You've Got Mail!", but that movie was (besides being based on the earlier movie 1940's "The Shop Around The Corner" hence Meg Ryan's store, and the Hungarian play that movie was based on), inspired by the story of how NYC's Shakespeare & Co. bookstore was driven out of business by a new Barnes & Noble nearby. That Barnes & Noble has since closed itself.

Wait wait wait. I had to look this up myself: there exists a bookstore chain in New York City and Philly called Shakespeare & Co ? And it appears to have no relationship at all with the uberfamous Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris? This is a bit like naming your new restaurant chain "The French Laundry". How could they be allowed to do this?

To be fair, even the current Paris-based bookstore of the name isn't the "real" one founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919 (that closed in 1941). I think the various bookstores of the name today do so in honor of Beach's store so they don't really claim ownership of the name.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#95

Post by padolsey »

rr808 wrote: post #93
WolfeReader wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I suspect most people who claim to love them are exaggerating." I can't imagine why a person would either think, or write, this sentence. Most people are being honest when they say they enjoy a thing.

My reasoning is that loads of people I meet say they love books and bookstores - but when I go to one of the few bookstores left in my area they're mostly empty, or usually mostly families looking for kids books.

I'm probably one of those people who waxes lyrical about bookstores but don't really find myself in them nowadays. To me it's a special experience tho. I experience them like museums and there are very few left (!!) that are imbued with that character of poetic chaos and serendipity. The only book shops left may indeed only be frequented by the demographics that keep the margins nice and fat. So I suppose there's a hidden bias in your observation.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#96

Post by ghaff »

sthu11182 wrote: post #62
pradn wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Strand is only worth going to as a tourist attraction (if you’re fully aware of its status as such), or if you need big art books (they’re unmatched in that category). In NY, I’d say take a look at Left Bank books (rare, old literature, photography, art books - some are even early editions of classics), Codex (little used shop with a fantastic selection), Mercer St Books and Records (basement hole in the wall), W…

I agree on Westsider. However, I always liked the Strand for its collection of history, science, and math books. While Strand can be crowded and touristy, it still has a good collection of books.

The Strand is one of the places/attractions/etc. that it's easy for locals to dump on a bit because it's something popular with tourists. But the reality is that they can be a lot of fun.

The last time I was in NYC, I was really hurting because of not one but two bad hamstrings cause by hockey. I could barely walk--which is not a great combination with NYC. I had some time and took a Circle Line cruise. It was delightful and I hadn't done it since I was a child!

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#98

Post by SeanLuke »

jhbadger wrote: post #94
SeanLuke wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait wait wait. I had to look this up myself: there exists a bookstore chain in New York City and Philly called Shakespeare & Co ? And it appears to have no relationship at all with the uberfamous Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris? This is a bit like naming your new restaurant chain "The French Laundry". How could they be allowed to do this?

To be fair, even the current Paris-based bookstore of the name isn't the "real" one founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919 (that closed in 1941). I think the various bookstores of the name today do so in honor of Beach's store so they don't really claim ownership of the name.

No, that is not at all fair. This wasn't a cold business decision.

George Whitman, who founded the current Paris bookstore, and Sylvia Beach, who founded the original, were very close friends. She even toyed with reopening her original shop with him, again under the name Shakespeare and Company. Two years after she died, he renamed his bookstore (Le Mistral) to Shakespeare and Company in her memory in 1964, as he thought that's what she would have liked. He also named his only daughter after her. As it happens, the second Shakespeare and Company also became a hub for authors like Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and many of the Beats. It's the sister shop of City Lights in San Francisco, with a similar author history. Whitman was awarded the Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His daughter now runs the store.

So in Paris there were two Shakespeare and Company bookstores, both extremely famous at different critical times in literary history, whose respective owners were very close, and which were both basically set up the same way. I think it's reasonable to say that they're both the "real" Shakespeare and Company. That's a far cry from the NYC situation.

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#99

Post by sideway »

I'm intrigued by all these comments praising second-hand bookstores as I've never been in one myself. My discovery methods are pretty simple and quite targeted.

Could you name some interesting, non-fiction books you've discovered that would be impossible or hard to find in online bookstores?

Re: What We Gain from a Good Bookstore

#100

Post by bombcar »

fritztastic wrote: post #73
reaperducer wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine that everything worth reading is available on Amazon and rated in Goodreads. Then you should broaden your imagination. Amazon and Goodreads have barely a fraction of one percent of the books that were published. And that's just in English. It's like saying "Anything worth watching is on streaming," even though less than 5% of the world's video content ever made the translation from film to VHS to DVD to str…

I understand your metaphor in the sense that The Matrix is a scifi adaptation of the allegory of the cave. The concept that commercial/online bookstores are where items worth finding will be found is like thinking the shadows of the cave are the only thing worth seeing. You are correct, there is so much content there be found, which isn't limited/controlled by what the big market values. Additionally those are very g…

A friend of my dad is a professional book hound, and he says it amuses him when he sees others who can’t understand what to do with a book that doesn’t have an isbn.
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