And before we go on further can I say I am obviously unable to comment on those allegations in Twitter that I have served a superinjunction so can we move on please?
I love books. We even have a small but beautifully fitted out 2500 book library at home. I spend more money on books than anything else. Barely an evening passes without me buying a book on Amazon and barely a week passes that I don’t go into Waterstones and come out of it grumpy. And yet I used to love the place.
And today, Saturday, I see the Russian oligarch Alexander Mamut has bought it from HMV (no surprise that…it’s been well trailed for ages) and put in James Daunt to run it (huge surprise that.) Daunts Books (there are seven branches but I only know the one in Marylebone High Street) is the delicatessen, the very Dean and Deluca of books. I always find books in there that I’ve never heard of but desperately want to read, books that I feel I really need.
Will James succeed with big W – the place that has become the shame of the High Street…the place where a friend was told a recent publication was not in stock and given the friendly advice by their staff “why don’t you try a real bookshop mate, like Foyles?”
The omens are not good. Book sales were down by 3% or so last year. Luke Johnson, owner of failed Borders and Books etc said book retailing was finished and his involvement had been a stupid error. Amazon say e-books now outsell paper books. Barnes and Noble are being kept alive by their e-commerce division the Nook and are currently considering a $1 billion bid by Liberty Media, the QVC shopping channel people.
And yet…and yet. Shops that sell great brands and give great service thrive. Farmers Markets burgeon. Organic and quality food blooms. New restaurants keep on opening. Literary Festivals flourish. And nothing beats a comfortable chair, good light, a glass of wine and the feel of a real book, the smell of fresh print and beautiful paper, the clunk of a hard cover and that certainty that it’s all there in your hands, typeset in Dutch 801 by MacGuru and printed by Clays in Bungay, Suffolk.
Our Kindle gathers dust from neglect. Our library just gathers dust, the dust of knowledge and turned pages, that fragrant dust of words.
I love books. I need books. Good luck James. Turn back the pages.
Monday, 23 May 2011
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2 comments:
Hum - I hope you will be proved correct, but I fear you won't.
I like the sensual experience of a 'good book' but both my children prefer Kindle, I-phone, e-books, audio stories, bluray. They often relish the good English that is part of the pleasure of a well-written book, but they don't have any loyalty to the delivery mechanism.
Also I think you haven't mentioned one dynamic that is driving the change. A physical book becomes yours and you lend it at will. When finally all your friends have read it, it goes into the church bazaar and is sold for 50p for charity (OK I'm talking paperbacks here, not necessarily fine hardbacks).
How often have even you, a self confessed Kindle-hater, lent someone one of your Kindle-books? Not many occasions, I'm prepared to bet. So this means that Amazon et al. sell more books in digital format - pretty much every reader needs to buy their own file. It's an effective way of confounding the lending habit.
Dear Ian
I agree about looking at next generations and next, next…
But here with under 5s we see a book obsessed bunch.
It’s the page turning and the individuality of each deliverer of stuff.
Trouble is are Mamut’s pockets deep enough?
Waterstones is such a basket case.
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