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No one buys books

elysian.press

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Re: No one buys books

#581

Post by boringg »

paxys wrote: post #101

Can't help but feel for the publishing industry considering how shafted they got by tech. You distribute books all over the country? Amazon can do it better and cheaper. You print books? Well we have e-books now. You have a massive back catalog? Google just scanned all of it. You do marketing? Authors now have their own followings on social media and can reach them directly. You give cash advances? Fans on Kickstarte…

And you didn't even bring in LLMs into the equation having hoovered up most books ever written

Re: No one buys books

#582

Post by yardie »

cafard wrote: post #524
atoav wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well a library is a place where a population can spend the day getting smarter while not spending money. If you're rich, powerful and an unethical asshole those are two things you definitely do not want. Sadly many people seem to think they are really showing the folks up there by retreating from any form of self-education once they are out of school. The opposite couldn't be more true.

Thank goodness then that socialists got a jump on building libraries back in the day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_library

Carnegie: “I’d like to avoid being remembered for having a bunch of labor strikers shot and killed. How can I launder my reputation?”

PR: “sir, with enough money you can make the public believe whatever you want.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewashing_(censorship)

Re: No one buys books

#583

Post by iso8859-1 »

devjab wrote: post #527
bazoom42 wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> books they know won’t sell well but will be lent a lot at the libraries This sounds weird. Wouldn’t the books which are lent more also sell more? Childrens books are a big market for book stores and of course they want to sell the most popular books. Are you referring to some particular book which cannot be purchased? Also libriaries does not have to buy any book.

It may sound weird, but there is not a link between lending from libraries and book sales. Some children’s books sell well, but if you go to the sections of them in book stores you’ll rarely find more than a handful of Danish authors represented. The ones which the bookstores know will sell well. Our Libraries have to make all Danish published material available. Some of this is indeed not bought, but because childre…

Are you referring to https://www.retsinformation.dk/eli/lta/2004/1439 ?

Re: No one buys books

#584

Post by al_borland »

linuxftw wrote: post #569
al_borland wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm continually shocked by the number of people who forget that libraries exist, and what they are.

It's almost like it's a totally unnecessary public expenditure at this point, and those funds could be used for, IDK, feeding the homeless?

Libraries can be a useful place for homeless, or low income, people to get access to a computer to write up a resume, apply for jobs, etc.

The people who forget about libraries are likely well off. Shutting down libraries to feed the homeless doesn’t make sense, as libraries are a tool that can allow them to eventually feed themselves, if well used.

Re: No one buys books

#585

Post by hollywood_court »

dfxm12 wrote: post #576
vik0 wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If you're rich, powerful and an unethical asshole those are two things you definitely do not want. This smells like a half-baked conspiracy theory. It's not like the overwhelming majority of people want to get smarter in their free time. I'm not sure how it is in the rest of the world, but in American and all (individual) European cultures, most people don't pursue self-education. I would not be surprised if this ap…

[flagged]

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. You speak the truth.

We're experiencing this very same thing now in Alabama. Or one could simply look at Florida. Things aren't getting better here. The current GOP leadership is trying their best to be as regressive as possible.

I feel like I am doing my son an incredible disservice by raising him in Alabama, but my wife refuses to leave while her mother is still living here.

Re: No one buys books

#586

Post by nemo44x »

Books are, in many cases anyways, an outdated medium. Or at best, a medium that has fierce competition from many other mediums that did not exist for the majority of time the printing press has been around. There's just so many ways to consume fiction today and the barrier to entry is essentially 0. Literature still has its place but that has always been a very small place for the highly intellectual - a limiting factor on its own. Similarly for non-fiction, there's just so much competition from other mediums that frankly, people tend to prefer over books.

People who love reading (I count myself here) will continue to and books will be viable to them. But the vast majority of people only ever read because there wasn't an alternative.

Re: No one buys books

#587

Post by jhwhite »

grepLeigh wrote: post #332

From the article: >>> "Wouldn’t it be great if you could pay $9.99 a month and read all of the books you want?" I sincerely hope nothing "disrupts" public libraries in my lifetime. As a California resident, I can walk into ANY public library in the state and get a free library card with access to physical books, audiobooks, ebooks. Some branches have laptops, hotspots, tablets, e-readers available to borrow. My local…

I was in the local library yesterday for the first time in a while and they had a 3d printer AND THEY WERE HATCHING BABY CHICKS! How awesome is that!

Re: No one buys books

#588

Post by closetkantian »

rfarley04 wrote: post #562
closetkantian wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean there are actually quite a few public libraries here, but of course the selection is primarily in Thai. I don't know why anyone would expect otherwise.

Which ones? Genuinely curious because I'm only aware TK Park (paid membership sponsored by... True? Or someone like that)

Bangkok City Library, Bangkok Public Library

Re: No one buys books

#589

Post by randcraw »

grepLeigh wrote: post #332

From the article: >>> "Wouldn’t it be great if you could pay $9.99 a month and read all of the books you want?" I sincerely hope nothing "disrupts" public libraries in my lifetime. As a California resident, I can walk into ANY public library in the state and get a free library card with access to physical books, audiobooks, ebooks. Some branches have laptops, hotspots, tablets, e-readers available to borrow. My local…

In contrast, public libraries around the Philly area are essentially dead. Town libraries are so underfunded that their mortar presences are open only until 7 PM M-Th, close at 5 F & Sa, and are closed Sundays. They have greatly reduced their paper book holdings and now rely almost entirely on ebooks, which number fewer than 2000, and interlibrary loans of any kind do not exist.

In contrast, public libraries in Michigan are thriving (another place I know well). I have no idea why the difference is so stark.

In my over 60 years, I've never lived anywhere so illiterate as Philly.

Re: No one buys books

#590

Post by bumby »

loup-vaillant wrote: post #570
bumby wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then you go on to say, > Though I'm afraid they tend to be selected out of ludicrous wealth. The irony is that one of the most ludicrously wealthy people in history was also probably the single largest contributor to public libraries. Whether or not he was simply an outlier, I think that’s an important thing to point out. Further, some data suggests that as much as 5% of the general population are narcissists. So…

> But then you go on to say, I said "tend to" . A tendency does not make an absolute and complete genocide. I also said "I'm afraid" , which is supposed to convey some level of uncertainty. Carnegie's donation doesn't invalidate my point, even if he wasn't an outlier . > The irony is that one of the most ludicrously wealthy people in history was also probably the single largest contributor to public libraries. Where…

What evidence would it take to change your mind? Because it seems like you'll rationalize any outcome to fit your mental model.

If the wealthy don't fund something, it's because they're narcissists. If they do, it's because of statistics. At the same time, you ignore the statistics about narcissism.

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