I am somewhat spoiled when it comes to
bookstores. After all, I live in Portland, OR which is home to
Powell's Books. I have mixed feelings about Powell's. It's a model
of supply. It's very competitive on prices and since we are in
Oregon, there is no sales tax. I tend to get lost in Powell's, and
that's perhaps the point. I know, for certainty, that there are
corners and nooks of the massive bookstores that I have never seen.
I secretly suspect that there may even be a floor I haven't seen.
I've never fully understood how the place is organized. The real
truth of my mixed feelings is simply this, the place is too big and
filled up with way too many people. I only go to Powell's very late
at night simply to avoid the other patrons. There is nothing that I
hate more than being molested in the bookstore.
I felt much the same way when I lived
in Denver. I loved going to the Tattered Cover. I would venture to
Cherry Creek specifically to hang out at the Tattered Cover. This
place, like Powell's, massive, a model of supply and overrun with
customers. Even when the bookstore moved to the Lowenstein Theater
on East Colfax, I was still a fan.
Both aforementioned bookstores still
exist, and they are still independent. Good for those folks in
Portland and Denver. I suppose everyone else can look to Barnes and Noble.
I have no beef with Barnes and Noble.
Please know this. I worked at the Barnes and Noble when I lived in
Tucson during that terrible year of 2005. Barnes and Noble is
efficient, easy to navigate and pleasant to be in. Downside, really,
all Barnes and Noble are alike and the selection is best suited for
profit rather than diversity.
But in the recesses of my memory I know
dozens, if not hundreds of bookstores all over the world. They were
small affairs too. They were the mom and pops shops. They were used
shops specializing in one thing or another. They were new shops that
occupied spaces in public places and they may all well be franchised
coffeehouses now. This is not the rambling of an old man. I feel
like there used to be more bookstores than there are now. And with a
wider array of booksellers, there was a wider variety of books
available.
I feel like the big box stores, Barnes
and Noble or Border's Books came and took the market away from the
mom and pops shops. And then Internet and Amazon took the show from
the box stores. And where does that leave us now?
I love Amazon. The last few books I
bought were off Amazon. I see people reading from the Kindle
everywhere these days. I think it's brilliant. I really do. But—
Sometimes it's the experience of
wandering into a bookshop that I miss. I miss the selection that
each shop sold because that, in a way, helped you to choose the book
you'd walk away with. The small shops were seldom overwhelming,
seldom packed with people. The small shops could be well lit with
the natural light from windows. Tungsten versus fluorescent will be
a debate for a different day.
In the months after the war, way back
in 1991 and 1992, I wandered through shelves of The Stars and Stripes
Bookstore. It was close to where I worked on Katterbach Kaserne. It
was on the side of the main road through the base and the railroad
tracks were behind it. I feel like I used to stop off at The Stars
and Stripes after lunch before returning to work. In those days I
read John Steinbeck. In those days I wanted nothing more than to be
a botanist. Many of the books I purchased at the time were
horticultural books. I don't remember much about the bookstore other
than how it made me feel: hopeful for the future, alone in the
present and somehow enriched. The war was over, my inner conflict
had not begun and there were more books in that small space than I
would ever be able to read.
Admittedly, I did not see this
commercial until today. But, boy, is it funny:
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