As a child I read everything I could get my hands on. I did a degree in English literature, reading is one of my main leisure activities, I’ll buy books as my occasional luxury when money is tight, and buy them a lot when it isn’t. I buy books as gifts for other people, I write books, review books. They are at the heart of my life. But I hate bookshops, and have come to the conclusion that perhaps I need to air this.
Walk into a bookstore. The front tables are laden with shiny things. Celebrity books and TV spinoffs frequently dominate. I want to buy books. I don’t have a TV and have no interest in the vast majority of celebrities, so seeing this kind of thing on paper makes me feel sad and like I’m in the wrong place.
Then there are the coffee table books, and ok, some of them are pretty, but on the whole I don’t want a big display item, I live in a small space. I’m looking for richness, depth content, you know, the stuff you get in books?
Move along. There are the gift-cum-toilet-reads. The sort of thing you had over as presents to people you don’t know well enough to be confident of what they’d like. I’ve been bought them down the years. Loosely funny, light on content, destined to provide light relief in your toilet. Not actual content though, or a story or any of that other stuff. I’ll pass on those, if you’ll excuse the pun.
Eventually I will get past all of these sources of misery, to the book shelves. I may venture to pick up a few books and read the backs. The trouble is, I don’t want a thing that is basically a rip off of the last big hit, and I don’t want a story I can predict from reading the blurb or the first paragraph and so I drift onwards, past the stand of comic books that is 90% men in tights thumping each other and 9% Tokyo Pop. The 1% of good stuff is copies of things I already own. Sometimes, in the non-fic section when I get past the TV books and the famous people, there’s something I want to take home. Mostly by this point I want to sit down in the aisle and weep at the sheer, unutterable tragedy of it all.
I want to buy books. I love books. Bookshops make me want to cry. Surely as someone who wishes to buy books, I am the bloody target market? Except apparently I’m not. But I wonder a thing… do the people who love celebrities and TV stuff actually buy that many books? Because book shops keep closing and generally the internet is getting the blame, but, there’s a thing… When I go online I can get niche content, small publisher content, books I want to read. Is it the fault of the internet that the majority of books in book shops are not the ones I want to buy? I wonder if perhaps it isn’t, and the whole assumption about who wants to buy what, and what will sell, and where the ‘sure fire hits’ are coming from may be wrong. Am I the only book lover being turned off by what’s actually available?
This is why I feel moved to speak up, because perhaps it’s not just me, and perhaps some noise can beget change. Worth a shot, I feel.
January 21st, 2013 at 12:57 pm
I bought more books in shops when I read more fiction. These days I read primarily non-fiction, and shops are pretty much useless particularly if you’re looking for something by a small or academic publisher. (Not to mention that so much good stuff is out of print!) It just seems rare that I am browsing for books–more likely I have something specific in mind, and a random store is generally unlikely to have it.
January 21st, 2013 at 2:45 pm
PLEASE send this to Waterstones… I know a lot of it is publisher-created (ie ‘focused’ titles) but I’m sure store buyers are listening avidly right now, after HMV’s demise. You’re absolutely right, hun, and it is a tragedy.
Incidentally, has any Waterstones/high st bookstore ever held one of your books? O Books has a fair few at Nottingham’s branch, but on approaching my local (Derby), I was met with resounding silence, despite the ‘local author’ tag…
January 21st, 2013 at 4:05 pm
No, you’re not the only one!
January 21st, 2013 at 5:58 pm
I think book stores are trying to make themselves relevant again. I know what you mean about wading through all the crap to get to the actual ‘books’, Chapters here has DVD’s, CD’s, and racks and racks of magazines. You have to go all the way to the back of the store to find fiction books, and then I never find anything I like.
January 21st, 2013 at 11:50 pm
I agree. I’ve resorted to reading teen urban fantasy because its the only thing on the market thats actually gripping and compelling. I love all sorts of fiction but these days it mostly seems very scripted. Crime fiction is all the same. Romance etc. I’ve become so jaded by it. I used to adore Ottakers and Waterstones. Now I don’t even go in the store and I’m an avid reader.
January 22nd, 2013 at 12:38 am
You are definitely not alone. I have increasingly felt that the stores here gave way too much shelf space and display tables to “popular culture” books. I don’t have a TV as well and if it wasn’t for the bookstores, I wouldn’t even know that person was “famous”. I do most of my book hunting in used bookstores (of which there are 2 in my city) and online. I agree with you about the niche market you can find online, especially if you are looking at non-fiction, I find. Also, I’ve liked the Kobo network for getting books. As much as I loathe not having the actual book in my hands, it is a way for me to read things I would not usually come upon. (Not to mention I’ve “Not interested” enough of their popular titles that they don’t send me them as recommendations anymore =P)
January 22nd, 2013 at 10:45 am
Hi there, I’m one of your new readers, and I’m across the pond, in America. I do agree that there’s too much useless reading being published, but I can tune it out. What bothers me is how much money the book stores charge for them! One of the many things I love about my Kindle Fire is that there’s a huge selection of excellent reading for very little cost. I live on Disability, which isn’t a whole lot of money, and I have thousands of titles at my fingertips, and I don’t have to leave the house, which is a trial for me, anyway, since I don’t have a car.
January 22nd, 2013 at 8:53 pm
I worked in a bookshop for many years and loved it, until a career change about 13 years ago – well before internet shopping and ebooks. At that time, the threat to bookshops was the supermarkets selling heavily discounted best sellers. Big sales of best sellers used to enable us to stock niche titles. When the supermarkets took the best seller profits, we could no longer afford the less popular books. In fact, it was the small specialist shops which survived, but they would be off the high street, small and with very low overheads. Now, of course, you don’t have to track down a specialist shop – the niche book you’re after is just a click away, and probably cheaper. I love bookshops and get a thrill just walking through the doors, but even I find the online convenience, choice and cheapness hard to resist…
January 23rd, 2013 at 5:31 am
Andrew, I’m envious… I would have dearly loved to work in a bookstore back in the day! Sadly, the choice is no longer mine to make, but I still love my books! One of the reasons that I love my Kindle so much has everything to do with my disability, heavy books dislocate my fingers and wrists, so the light weight of the Kindle is easy for me to handle without getting hurt. Ok, I confess, the other reason I love it is that it’s Star Trek Tech, and I’m a Star Trek geek, through and through! Anyway, I also love the fact that I’m able to keep most of my Druid reading materials on one media.
January 22nd, 2013 at 11:29 pm
Ever been in a second hand bookshop? They are treasure ships of knowledge I could get lost in.
January 23rd, 2013 at 7:25 am
You can pick up some surprising gems in charity shops, too.
January 23rd, 2013 at 3:41 am
[...] Why I don’t like bookshops [...]
January 23rd, 2013 at 7:24 am
Second hand book shops rock! I know what you mean about the big chains though, but I look at it this way. Some people, and it’s hard to believe, are not born and/or raised with a love of books! I know! It’s tragic! So, I look at all the sparkly shiny stuff as bait. Dangle that Kardasian magazine! Shimmer the True Blood cover… and the fresh meat tentatively steps through the door… Now, it’s true that some make their escape after taking an exploratory nibble, but some bite… and next thing you know, they are back in the back wandering through the history, religious studies, and classic sci-fi sections. A new reader is born. More readers means a market for more books, so bring on the origami kits, celebrity cookbook and the racks of holographic and beaded bookmarks!
January 27th, 2013 at 9:40 pm
I agree with you, Nimue. It’s the same way over here, across the pond. I’ve been a bookworm all my life, read everything I could get my hands on growing up, like you. I don’t go into bookstores much anymore. I found “Pagan e-books for Free” on Facebook, and have been building quite a library of Kindle books – fiction, history, gardening, classics…. I like Connie’s view, too, about the shiny stuff being bait and creating new readers.
January 28th, 2013 at 2:51 am
Interesting topic Nimue, but I have to wonder about whether or not you would make similar comments regarding your local grocery store that carries all sorts of food and other products that are of no interest to you? Yes, there are a lot of items that I am not interested in either, along with many of the magazines that some of the comments referred to, but there are gems hiding there waiting to be discovered.
I’ll use the example of Circle Magazine. I have seen some book store customers shoving it behind other magazines because they did not agree with the content, and felt that they were doing something positive to prevent it being sold within “their” store. Perhaps they went home and then wondered how they could present an article on “Why I Don’t Like Bookstores”?
On the other hand, some of the “books” are what many readers will refer to as “fluffy bunny”, and are about as informative as a roll of paper towels. You mentioned that you are “looking for richness, depth content” in a book format, and that is what I also prefer, but much of the solid information that is available does not get published that way. In my case, as part of being a Druid, I love working with wood, and most of the up to date publications dealing with wood working techniques come in magazine format. So, in order to be able to obtain a lot of the information that is of interest to me in a hardcopy format, the section of magazines and comics at the front of the store is essential to me, and I honour the rights of other readers who have the opportunity to purchase materials that are of no interest to me.
All of the other bits and pieces such as candles, bookmarks, wall plaques, etc., may not interest me either, but these sales contribute to the overall profitability of the store, which in turn permits them to carry low volume items such as Circle Magazine. Obviously, some of the customers want this variety of merchandise which brings them joy, and it is part of the world that we live in. Just as Pagans wish to be accepted as part of the world around us, we should be willing to accommodate others.
Here is a partial quote from one author . . . “Be alive. Be human. Be present in the world. If you respond to that experience with love and gratitude, with respect and honour then what comes will be Pagan, . . . . . . . So, find what is in your heart, and do that thing, and the words that make sense of it will come along in time.”
Reference:- http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=ukgb2&c=words&id=15300
If the current trend of E-publication keeps increasing as many are predicting, you may soon see the type of bookshop that you desire, . . . . minus new authors who will not be able to afford to have their work published as hardcopy. Sooner or later, the hardcopy will fade, as records and cassette tapes have done, but I don’t want to help push it over the cliff.
It’s just my point of view. Thanks for reading.
Blessings to you.
January 28th, 2013 at 11:46 am
I think print on demand alongside e pubishing is probaby what we’ll get for the greater part in the long term. I also think if I had the impression that lots of people were buying and loving the books that wind me up, I’d be less bothered. So many printed books just end up in landfill, magazines too for that matter. It’s something terrifyingly like 40-50% of what gets published. If people are nourished or made happy, that’s a win. I get equally upset about things in other stories that just get thrown away. The plastic toys designed and made so poorly that they break in no time and go in the bin are a source of particular grief. I don’t much like the pile it high and sell it cheap mentality in any of its manifestations. But, when I do go into bookstores, I notice that most are not very busy, not even with browsers. If people were in there buying the stuff I don’t like, that would be different. Its the nasty suspicion that this stuff doesn’t sell either, and that were crushing the market by trying to sell the wrong things in the first place.