Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Business Rusch: Bookstore Observations

Ed here: An excellent post from one of my favorite writers and favorite people.

The Business Rusch: Bookstore Observations
Kristine Kathryn Rusch

I live in a town that has no completely new bookstore. We have two marvelous bookstores that feature new and used. One specializes in mysteries, and the other gets as much of everything as it can. But it only has a tiny storefront, and so “everything” is geared toward Times bestsellers and books on Oregon.

So it’s a treat for me to go to a chain bookstore. It’s rare and unusual, and I usually spend hours in the store, walking the aisles, looking at trends. I also spend hundreds of dollars, because I generally only get there once every six weeks or so. I have a habit of buying books that I won’t remember when I got home rather than making a list.

Or I used to.

I’m not one of those obnoxious people who stands in the aisle of a brick-and-mortar store and downloads the book on my Kindle or iPhone app. I’m not that crass.

However, I escaped this latest bookstore adventure down only $66, and that included a cupcake, a coffeecake, and a to-go cup of tea. Dean bought his standard two books. And the rest—maybe $35—was me.

That’s it. And it wasn’t because I didn’t want to spend the money. I had my standard $150 to $200 budgeted for this bookstore adventure. I simply couldn’t find what I wanted.

for the rest go here:
http://kriswrites.com/2011/06/15/the-business-rusch-bookstore-observations/

2 comments:

Jeff P said...

Well, this sucks. But she's absolutely right. I saw it at my local B&N last weekend, I just wasn't observant enough to put it all together. I was busy being happy to see they had a bunch of books I wanted that weren't available at my local (closer) Borders.

Matt said...

Without irony, Ed's next post is a commercial for a Kindle product. And he's promoted his Amazon e-book reader for years.

If fewer books in stores reduces American jobs (from cashier to janitor to delivery driver, etc.) as well as midlister career options...well, at least you got yours, eh?