I’ve never been a massive fan of the big book store chains. Sure, they have some great deals and you can be nearly guaranteed to find any book you want there, but it’s hardly an inspiring literary experience to trawl through six fluorescent lit levels of books that looks suspiciously like the local Woolworths supermarket.
A true book lover gets their rocks off in the small independent book stores – the ones that are dimly lit, have creaking floorboards and the books are presented like works of art. The ones that smell like books, as if they are pumping some kind of strange musty book perfume through the air con. You know, the type that hardly exist anymore because they’ve been pushed out by the chain gang.
So you'd think I'd be thrilled to have heard the news today that Borders has filed for bankruptcy. Owing millions of dollars to publishers. But thrilled I am not. Because cash poor publishing houses can’t be good news for anyone, especially new, aspiring novelists I would suspect. And one of the main reasons for their bankruptcy - their poor online presence - has probably got book store owners quivering in their boots the world over.
Will our love for online shopping spell the end of the street front book store as we know it? Because unlike shoes and clothes, when it comes to books most people aren’t all that fussed about try before you buy. Those of us who like to spend hours browsing in book stores, sniffing the pages (it’s got nothing to do with the binding glue, I swear) might just be a dying breed.
Suddenly I feel bad for buying a kindle. I feel bad for my new addiction to The Book Depository, even though they offer free postage all the way to Australia and I don’t even have to get out of my pyjamas to place my order. I might just pop out in the morning and buy myself a book. From a book store. One of those musty, maze-like independent ones in fact.
Because imagine a world without book stores! That would be like a world without wine. Too unbearable to contemplate.
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