The literate person's last taboo
AT LAST, an outright attack on bookshops. Admittedly it's a Borders that moves Scott Karp to transgress the literate person's last taboo, but a lot of the points hold good for smaller bookstores too (and in Karp's logic smaller bookstores are ipso facto worse).
So here's the new rules. If you want to commune with books go to a library. if you want to buy them go to Amazon. If you want to be alerted to what's new and worth reading, get the New York Times Book Review. If you want a Starbucks, go to Starbucks.
Actually, I love bookstores (those that don't have background music), but I'm so fed up with having to be pious about them that I'm going to kick the other way for a while to see what it feels like. And maybe come up with some ideas for improving them in the process. Let's start with a silence rule. And no business books (go to a website!). And putting copies of the Times Book Review on poles in all bookshops, like newspapers in a French café, so I don't stand around quite so much wondering what it was I promised myself I would buy.
Comments
Post new comment