I KILLED THE BOOKSTORE!

Last week I went to Barnes &Noble to browse around and check-out some possible new reads. I see a few books that look interesting and so I pull out my phone and snap a picture of the title so I can remember to add it to my list. In the same moment I was convicted. Yes, I took a snapshot of the book so I could easily reference the title but also so that I’d know what to get…from Amazon.

I’d done this before and honestly thought nothing of it until just recently. I killed the bookstore. People like me who use brick and mortar to “window shop” for potential internet orders. I confess and stand guilty as charged. I frequent the bookstore but I can say I rarely and almost never, make a purchase. Why spend $15 for the book when I can get it online for $7? For the sake of bargains and savings, that’s a deal! But is the deal worth it. I am a diehard Amazonian like millions of others; who’s to say the bookstore is not in danger of having to close its doors forever?

The bookstore does provide something the online stores have yet to implement and that is the power of now…right now. I am in the bookstore and I need/want this book right now and I can walk right up to the register and meet my needs and satisfy my wants. But, if you’re like me, always reading something, then some things can wait. I have a running list of books I want to read so when I’m in Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million, I’m hardly starving for literary fulfillment.

I was fortunate enough to have an epiphany follow my conviction; and that conviction is that I can still make a purchase at the bookstore. Some books are worth having in the moment, worth buying fresh and new and supporting a brick and mortar. Just as I do not read every book through my Kindle, I do not have to make every purchase from my favorite online bookstore. For instance, I believe that classic literature should be read in classic form and I that one should own a physical copy of their most favorite reads.

Okay, so maybe I don’t kill the bookstore, but the potential is there. I’m just one person but there are millions of people who would prefer to buy books online posing, a real threat to our beloved bookstores.