Bookstores, libraries, ...

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Beth

Reader
That little article makes me day! Good news for the independent bookseller here and for those who seek them out.
 
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Sybarite

Reader
nnyhav said:
Another indepedent, in the hometown of Rodney Welch: The Blog: Another trophy for Amazon.com
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This really pisses me off. I've been having a rather heated debate elsewhere about 'The Market' and how the market is not the answer to everything. The discussion involved (amongst other things) the passing of a second-hand, academic, remaindered and antiquarian bookshop opposite the British Library in London early this year – after the landlord took the opportunity to hike the rent through the roof (another business was similarly finished). I had also mentioned how, with the passing of the Net Book Agreement in the UK, many independent bookshops have been forced to close, while choice has been reduced.

I have been assured by apologists for 'The Market' that I'm just being a book snob; that choice has not reduced because we have Amazon and that, if people in general really cared about such things as small, independent bookshops, they'd use them.

Oh well ... perhaps they'll feel happy when the whole world has become homogenised, with every street having exactly the same shops, selling exactly the same products.

More cheerfully – this is my local bookshop, which opened within the last five years. It's a tiny space, with a small but interesting selection of books.
 
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Eric

Former Member
The dilemma with the market is that, on the one hand, it allows the setting up of genuinely independent bookshops that are not just the extended arm of Bertelsmann or Random House. But, on the other, the risk is, as Sybarite says, that without a net price book agreement, they run the risk of going bust. EU regulations prevent cartels, so small booksellers cannot fix prices among themselves, and this would not help them in any case against supermarkets and Waterstone's.

Selling quality books is the opposite of the "stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap" philosophy. But if too many subsidies and grants are involved, not only genuine booksellers get in on the act. Some people exploit handouts.

If genuine bookshops are to be subsidised, where should the money come from, and how should it be paid? You can have national (e.g. Arts Council) grants; local government grants; private regular, or one-off, gifts; lottery money. I'm sure there are other sources. Should the money be a lump sum, or paid on every book sold, or what?

The problem with the "but there's always Amazon" argument is that you cannot browse through a book on Amazon before buying it. If you know exactly what you want, Amazon is brilliant. But browsing, rejecting and ultimately purchasing are all part of the fun of buying books. You cannot do that from your computer; nor would you want to. Bookshops, like pubs, are also a social space. You can get drunk at home, but that's not the same as socialising in the pub over a pint. Likewise, a book through the letter box isn't the same as one you've picked from a choice of three in a bookshop.

I do not think that people who stick up for small bookshops are "book snobs". But both booksellers and customers will have to come up with a satisfactory method of funding, so that minority tastes, rare books, second-hand (i.e. recycled) books, and so on also have their space in society. And that you can enter a physical space where such items are bought and sold, instead of having to do everything on the impersonal internet.
 
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fausto

Reader
I don't have any problem with 'The Market' which is an abstraction anyway and I do understand people who shop amazon or big chains because it's cheaper, but I personally try to buy as much as possible in local businesses. I really have no solution for the crisis they seem to be in but I tend to note that those who remain in business and are going strong are the ones offering a real added value -- ie service, choice, knowledge, identity. To be quite honest, a lot of local shops do a terrible job: they sell the same things big chains do, only with less stocks and more expensive. Those ones I'm not sad to see go (and actually they usually are the first to go). The real sad thing is when good bookshop go bust -- because you don't only have to know what you are doing, you also have to know how you need doing it and basic business sense seems to be lacking from people animated with passion.
As for an homogene world, it's a fear and I think it's what it will remain to be. Your friends are right when they say there is more choice than before (because it's true, you can buy a wider variety of books now than twenty years ago) but they're missing the point entirely: bookshopping is not only about choice.
Regarding funding, I think there are more important things out there to subsidize than bookshops. Without even thinking about society as a whole, if we limit ourselves to literature, help for writers, translators or publisher seems more urgent.
 
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Eric

Former Member
As a translator, I am very aware of the money in your bank account and where it comes from. And also that one of the principal reasons that there are so few translations in Britain is because publishers claim that translation costs so much. This is something of a myth, given the existence of national book promotion organisations.

But at the other end, the bookshop, I do have a lot of sympathy for the type of bookshop that Sybarite refers to. The added value that Fausto mentions includes knowledgeable people behind the counter. But the physical space, as I mentioned, is just as important. This is especially true of second-hand bookshops, where you can often find more unusual things.

There may be more important things to fund than bookshops (given the world economic climate over the past week!), but bookshops are exceptionally vulnerable, when the Arts Council or the EU decides to give more to ballet, opera and other performance art, which tends to be expensive, and reduce funding for literature, publishing, bookselling, translation, etc., which are all part of book culture.
 
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Sybarite

Reader
I'm not convinced by the idea of funding bookshops – do we also, in the UK, want to fund independent food shops that stock good quality (often local) food but get pushed out of business by supermarkets? I don't think that that really deals with the problem.

It never fails to hit me, when I'm on the Continent, how supermarkets and chains have taken over cities and towns far less than in the UK. Barcelona is a good example. Of course supermarkets exist, but everywhere you walk, there are also lots of little bakeries, delis, cafes etc – never mind the four markets (including the divine La Boqueria) that I know are within easy reach of where I've stayed in the city.

Same goes for Paris and Berlin and Amsterdam. Yes, McDonalds exists – but not on ever street corner. What's happening in the UK is a rampant homogenisation of shopping areas, with such chains having the financial clout to buy up any leases/land etc, leaving small businesses (including bookshops) struggling. The end of the Net Book Agreement also meant that a lot of small bookshops in the UK were essentially unable to get the big titles to sell, because they were being undercut by the big chains and the supermarkets (many newsagents have gone out of business because of supermarkets too).

So I'd be interested to know how Paris, Barcelona etc manage to avoid a Starbucks on every corner and a McDonalds on every road and many local shops wiped out by vast supermarkets.

How does that happen? Is it legislation? Is it that – I think that this is the case in France – it's very difficult, in terms of the paperwork etc, to change the site of a business to a different sort of business. So, for example, McDonalds can't just buy any shop and convert it to sell their brand of crap.

Surely the way forward is to be friendly to small businesses – not just obsessed with the biggest businesses around?
 
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cuchulain

Reader
Sybarite said:
I'm not convinced by the idea of funding bookshops ? do we also, in the UK, want to fund independent food shops that stock good quality (often local) food but get pushed out of business by supermarkets? I don't think that that really deals with the problem.

It never fails to hit me, when I'm on the Continent, how supermarkets and chains have taken over cities and towns far less than in the UK. Barcelona is a good example. Of course supermarkets exist, but everywhere you walk, there are also lots of little bakeries, delis, cafes etc ? never mind the four markets (including the divine La Boqueria) that I know are within easy reach of where I've stayed in the city.

Same goes for Paris and Berlin and Amsterdam. Yes, McDonalds exists ? but not on ever street corner. What's happening in the UK is a rampant homogenisation of shopping areas, with such chains having the financial clout to buy up any leases/land etc, leaving small businesses (including bookshops) struggling. The end of the Net Book Agreement also meant that a lot of small bookshops in the UK were essentially unable to get the big titles to sell, because they were being undercut by the big chains and the supermarkets (many newsagents have gone out of business because of supermarkets too).

So I'd be interested to know how Paris, Barcelona etc manage to avoid a Starbucks on every corner and a McDonalds on every road and many local shops wiped out by vast supermarkets.

How does that happen? Is it legislation? Is it that ? I think that this is the case in France ? it's very difficult, in terms of the paperwork etc, to change the site of a business to a different sort of business. So, for example, McDonalds can't just buy any shop and convert it to sell their brand of crap.

Surely the way forward is to be friendly to small businesses ? not just obsessed with the biggest businesses around?
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I visited Ireland in 2003 and thought how much of a tragedy it would be to see superstores appear there. They must have zoning laws to prevent that. At least for now. In most Irish towns, the stores have been in the same family for several generations. Big box stores would destroy them overnight. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that it would destroy Ireland itself.

One of the wonderful things about many of the bookstores mentioned above is that they don't destroy grand old buildings to put up some cookie cutter shop. They often choose wonderfully eccentric, already existing digs and fill them with rows of books. The chains--primarily American--tend not to inhabit already existing and marvelous buildings.

There should be a kind of "recycling" mentality in play. But it's all too rare.
 
miercuri

miercuri

Reader
fausto said:
Mercer's features Shakepseare & co in Paris. Sigh. So the place has its charms but the books selection is really poor and prices very expensive, even for Paris. This is turning more and more into a place for US & UK tourists looking for some literary anecdotes -- most think that it's actually the authentic pre-war Sylvia Bleach bookshop they are visiting evoking souvenirs of Hemingway, Joyce or Gide although the location is not the same and Bleach had nothing to do with its reopening by George Whitman, friend of the beats.
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Shakespeare & co. is indeed overpriced, but I was quite impressed with the jungle of books I found inside. However, I would recommend Gibert-Jeune if one is bookshopping in Paris.
I don't know if this link was posted before, but it's definitely on topic:
European Bookstoreguide.
 
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