The 19th-century abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher once asked, “Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?” We still understand what he meant because bookstores have survived the Civil War, two world wars and the rise of television, but the next two centuries look more daunting. Fortunately the act of reading itself looks healthy, though the “book” may look quite different 10 years from now.
As it is, the typical bookstore has become more than the name implies. The most popular ones come with a cafe and extensive selection of music and DVDs. A spacious children’s section might boast a small play area, and the front of the store must necessarily offer a variety of reading-related gifts, from bookmarks to chic book lamps. But even that isn’t enough, it seems.
When I returned home this summer, my local bookstore had undergone not only a facelift, but also gastric bypass, tonsillectomy and an appendectomy. My favorite haunts — history, politics, current events, philosophy and religion — were compressed into a small section of the store to make way for toy displays. I even received an e-mail hawking children’s Halloween costumes. And right inside the front door is an apparently permanent kiosk showing off the company’s new e-reader.
It’s hard to blame brick-and-mortar booksellers for underperforming in the Age of Amazon. We expect everything from computers to used cars to be available online and ready-made for comparison-shopping and bargain hunting — all from the comfort of the sofa to boot. A warehouse alongside a highway with no sales floor associates can offer better prices than real-life bookstores. As consumers, we’re justified in demanding convenience, selection and savings from computerization.
As evidence, compare the world’s largest online retailer with the largest bookstore chain in the United States. William Barnes and G. Clifford Noble founded their flagship store in New York in 1917. Jeff Bezos ’86 launched Amazon.com in 1995. Today, Amazon’s market capitalization stands at nearly $72 billion to Barnes & Noble’s $1.02 billion. Amazon’s net profit was $902 million in 2009 compared to Barnes & Noble’s $75.9 million. And in the past five years, Amazon’s stock has nearly tripled, whereas Barnes & Noble’s is down more than 50 percent. For reference, the S&P 500 Index is off about 5 percent in the same period.
But for purists, nothing quite compares to losing an hour or two exploring the aisles of a store, holding a potential purchase in your hands and comparing the feel — rather than just the prices — of different editions. There really is a wonderful smell locked in the pages of a new book. Plus, there aren’t any surprises, like large-print or abridged versions, because you accidentally clicked the wrong link.
This desire for selections and savings, but also for a sentimental experience, could mean that bookstores might exist as a sort of luxury item. Going to a bookstore could soon become the equivalent of dining out — a fancy but less-than-daily treat for the senses. Stores that specialize in rare and older books have long catered to a relatively small clientele.
Fortunately reading doesn't have to fade, even if bookstores do. But unlike the idea of selling paper-and-ink books online, the e-reader will fundamentally change how books look. I suspect the e-reader phenomenon is the tip of an iceberg of innovation yet to come. The digital book will probably be the latest stage in a journey from scrolls and diligent Middle Age monks to paper and movable type. With each innovation, reading has become more affordable.
For most people, the main obstacles to paperless reading are the overhead costs of an e-reader device, the risk that one of the devices will be the equivalent of Betamax in the videotape wars, and design shortcomings. Personally, I find the current interface on many readers to be cumbersome — for example, flipping to an endnote or making a marginal note — and Princeton students who tested Kindles last year seemed to agree. But that too shall pass.
Right now, we’re witnessing a competition among e-reader devices like the Nook and the Kindle. A price war is already underway, sure to make the e-reader devices more affordable. The actual books are frequently cheaper in digital versions than on paper, so after the e-reader cost comes down, e-readers will ultimately make books cheaper in the same way that iTunes made music cheaper (albeit with the one-time cost of a computer and an iPod). On a related track, the Google Books project is out to scan works already in the public domain that can be accessed at no additional cost.
The great American comedian Groucho Marx — an author of many books himself — once quipped, “I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.” Reading is surviving the challenge of a digital age. The brick-and-mortar bookstores, though, will have to adapt or become the domain of book enthusiasts. Either way, there’s no reason an e-reader can’t find a place alongside the traditional tomes on our bookshelves.
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