Nostalgia aside (I spent my childhood in a library) I don't see any value in high street bookstores. Stories like this are sad on a personal level for people involved but they are trying to suggest that we are losing something when we're anything but. My book consumption has quadrupled because of how easy it is to find new books and recommendations online. I am never in a situation where I don't have a book I want to read or I can't get it within 10 minutes.
A criticism of online bookshops like Amazon is that they destroy serendipity by encouraging you to look at related books. For example, someone who usually buys engineering textbooks and SF may never see a travelogue. Offline recommendations from friends are good to have, but no substitute for self-discovery. One example I like to give is -- if I wander through the Daunt bookshop in Marylebone St (which despite the press doesn't only stock travel books), I can always lots of books to buy about stuff I would never have dreamed of entering into a Google or Amazon search box.
I get what you're saying, but that's again partly nostalgia for the old way. Algorithms can add serendipity as well, in more ways than one -- by recommending things on the long tail.
Book discoveries, like album discoveries, happen better in stores. It's not nostalgia, but just the way the physical world works. (Think of how music lovers connected with album covers in the vinyl world.)
Just because something is "the old way" and there is nostalgia for it doesn't automatically make it worthless.
Interesting you should say that, because my music preferences have been enriched immensely by Rdio, in a way that physical stores (even my favorite, Rasputin Music) never did. Rdio helped me explore new genres, find obscure albums and artists and dive into areas (especially experimental music) poorly served by stores.
In part, I think, this is because Rdio implemented social features poorly. I find music based on the music, not on what's popular. And it's willing to recommend things off the long tail that I'd never find in a store—one of my favorites was an album from a French band that never released anything else and probably didn't make it to a single US store.
The same isn't quite as true for bookstores, perhaps because popularity plays a somewhat smaller role than for music. But I could still see online recommendations being better for depth, especially if I wanted to dive deeply into some genre and explore obscure authors that never really made it.
I don't think everyone would agree that album discoveries happen better in stores. They certainly don't for me, I would guess like most things it's subjective.
Yeah, I still like visiting record stores and book stores but I agree with this.
For me, Spotify is the best way for me to discover new music. Usually through the thematic aligned playlists or unofficial playlists curated by other users.
How exactly does album discovery work better in the physical world? If I'm walking down the isle and see an album cover that has artwork I like on it, or just grab one out of the Pop/R&B section because I liked a pop song I heard on the radio, or grab an album that was recommended by a store clerk on the recommended shelf? All those are nearly just random discovery.
This.
Particularly with books, I can decide way faster by picking one, skim the back, index and pages than clicking though lists and "previews". Also, I can scan a whole bookcase in a couple of seconds, not just a list of tittles and tiny thumbnails.
Right now, for me, is a matter of bandwidth and latency
We lose the serendipity of random discovery while wandering a bookstore, but have gained the serendipity of random discovery from hosts of friends and strangers sharing thoughts and suggestions through many different literary (and not-literary)-focused channels online.
> A criticism of online bookshops like Amazon is that they destroy serendipity by encouraging you to look at related books. For example, someone who usually buys engineering textbooks and SF may never see a travelogue.
That's a dumb criticism, since the merchandising of a brick-and-mortar bookstore typically does the same thing as that of an online retailer: presents whatever the store is trying to get rid of to everyone up-front, and otherwise presents people with things related to what they are searching for specifically, avoiding exposing them to the rest.
You can actively choose to browse (wander through a physical bookstore, click different categories for an online one) for the purpose of providing yourself opportunities for serendipity, but no bookstore is designed to encourage serendipity, because anything that does that is a terrible UX for most customers and leads to confusion, frustration, and not buying, and the store going out of business.
I feel like there's a need to recreate that then on the web because in some ways my early experiences on the web were just that: going from link to (sometimes unrelated) link. I think the way things are setup on the web are not inherent to the web itself, but to the idea that every web page or site has to fit a template rather than being just as messy and subjective as a small book store.
Yes; an important function of a physical bookstore is a physical meeting point, shared with others, where you can see books randomly, ask the staff, open a book and read for a while...
In a lot of areas, the mega-bookstore lended a patina of high culture to areas that now basically consist of pricey lofts and bars/restaurants.
If there's any truth to the complaints, I think it's that they speak to a demand for more variety in "third places" - somewhere to meet friends and serendipitously run into new people outside of the house. Restaurants and bars are fine, but I think people miss other kinds of commerce - retail used to add that variety. Perhaps the eager adoption of work share spaces speaks to this. I think there are more business opportunities catering to this innate human need.
I understand your perspective however it can also be validly argued that we are losing the chance to develop a community around books. Shops can be more than a place to exchange money for goods.
" The art of browsing and the serendipity of finding unconnected books are hard to emulate in the virtual world. "
I am not so sure about this. I always felt internet made this experience seamless and super convenient. Also, the higher confidence(with more data) with which I buy a book has decreased the regret value in case it turned out to be not so good.
Of course, if their was a highly interactive bookstore which had best of both the worlds, I would always prefer it over the virtual one. Maybe someone should focus on making those.
IMHO, I don't find the statement very far from truth. Most of the online book stores today are recommending similar books through one algorithm or another. I have not yet seen any good implementation of a system that suggests unconnected books.
Actually when we talk about serendipity with regards to books online, it's pretty silly to disconnect that from serendipity on the internet itself - because if you're a book lover ,ideas from the internet will guide you towards books.
And while there's a debate whether internet increases serendipity or just puts us in a filter bubble(personally i think that if you want more seredipity , you'll get it), there's some research that supports "more serendity" claims:
I mostly agree with your statement... Goodreads has made me discover a lot of books.
On the other hand, there are many good books I wouldn't have read if I had the selection available over the Internet (of course, many bad ones too, but I think everyone needs to read a few of those)... it makes it very easy to stay on your comfort zone.
Funny that you said that. That's exactly what I was imagining few minutes ago. People walking in virtual bookstores, meeting and discussing books with their friends in other countries, instantly exploring and accessing related articles, essays and research papers etc. The ability to touch and feel the book should eventually be integrated in this whole experience. The design decisions for making these interactive virtual shops are fascinating to ponder upon.
I wonder if meetup.com is considering investing money in VR considering most meetups would be online 20-30 years from now.
No one wants virtual worlds like that. A lot of the convenience of the internet is that it removes the need for such interaction. This leads to better information density online which leads to more buying confidence.
People were saying the same thing about Second Life, about how stores would need SL equivalents.
VR bookstores which try to model real bookstores will fall flat for the same reason Second Life ultimately failed to provide mainstream experiences.
I haven't tried Second Life, but most virtual worlds I've seen do not provide the kind of experience I'm hoping for with Oculus Rift (maybe Oculus itself won't be able to either, but I can hope). And Second Life didn't become mainstream enough, and the user interface had a lot of friction.
Virtual worlds/Cyberspace are a very pervasive trope in mainstream culture (see Matrix, etc... down to the latest hits like Ready Player One)
Discoverability in many online stores sucks, and the browser doesn't lend itself to the kind of experience needed - I REALLY hope there can be a better user experience through virtual reality, and that access to an Oculus or similar device will remove friction - it needs to be a pain-free experience.
This thread got me thinking, and I already DO enjoy a kind of virtual experience that is very well suited to the Oculus - Google's Street View and similar. I and my girlfirend both love exploring through Street View. If something like the Street View experience can be replicated for shopping, it might become very popular.
My second thought is that a company that would be well suited to provide the kind of experience needed is Apple :) , but John Carmack and his team have been working very hard to provide an inmersive environment and a good user experience. I'm very excited for this technology.
Within a year, this is the third out of the four bookstores I frequented as a child, that have gone out of business. Those are Bookworm CP, Landmark in Lucknow, Fact & Fiction. Only one remains, and that guy refuses to give a single rupee as discount, so I don't know how long will he last.
That's not all. Most Landmark stores are reducing in size, if not shutting down. Same is happening with Crossword.
As a member of the publishing world, I'm naturally sad to see book stores like this go. But I also know that most of our own sales are direct or via Amazon.
As a customer, while I frequent book stores regularly I almost always find myself thinking "I can probably save a few pennies on Amazon".
In Germany books on Amazon cost exactly the same as in the store by law. I still go to Amazon because it's much more convenient to get things delivered and because there is often a used version available that doesn't require killing trees (and is cheaper).
In my case the local bookshop [1] two doors down the street offers the perfect compromise: You order online on said website, then pick up the book in the store the next day. Typically faster than amazon, same offers, obviously same prize (because it is fixed in Germany) and a generally much nicer experience.
A lokal bookshop in my hometown just opened a digital order mechanism. You can order your book there, have it available for retrieval within one, at the most two days.
I think, they even think about partnering with local delivery providers to make delivery possible.
But it is hard to beat Amazon on the "no cost for shipping" thing for books in Germany.
If I would still live there, I would totally use this instead of Amazon for books.
Most large bookstore chains in Germany offer this service as well (e.g. Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel - not that their business practices are any better than Amazon's). I chatted with a few employees but almost nobody seems to use that service. Except for mine, all other books were either ordered in person or by phone.
If there was an independent bookstore here that offered that I would totally use it. But it's even hard to find any independent bookstore here (eastern Germany), so I'm back to Amazon.
The law (BuchPrG) provides a rationale to restrict the free market in this particular case in it's first section (translation by me):
> This law provides protection for books as a cultural heritage. Fixing prices for customers ensures availability of a wide range of books. Additionally, this law ensures that this offer is available to the broad public by encouraging the existence of a large number of stores.
Fixing the prices makes books more expensive but ensures that even small niches are filled that would otherwise be unprofitable and bookstores sell those. It's supposed to be a cross-subsidy by buyers of popular books. Additionally, almost every book store will sell you almost any book (if it isn't in stock they get them overnight).
I think around half of the EU members have such laws in place. It is widely debated whether the law has the predicted effects.
> How can you have market competition if they ban competition?
By having the competition on other levels than prices (not totally, since the prices at which the shop buys the books are not fixed, so they compete for good deals on that end)
Ah, I mostly buy English language ebooks so my situation might be different. Buying English paper books in German stores is usually more expensive for me.
In addition, the indifferent service at most book shops ( I refer to Dymocks, Barnes and Nobles, Borders and various independent local bookshops that I have visited over the years ) has meant that the interaction with Amazon is actually more pleasant.
Dealing with bored, uninterested counter staff at bookshops is about as rewarding as dealing with bored,uninterested counter staff at any other shop.
I avoid Barnes and Noble like the plague because the ONLY interaction I get from the staff is them trying to sell me on some yearly club at check out. The other local bookstores also have bored uninterested staff, but at least I don't have to suffer their sales pitches.
I think most savvy internet shoppers think this when they see things on store shelves, and in some retail stores, its a much larger markup than just a few pennies.
I thought the same thing after reading this article, but then wondered how much a posted policy in the store might help? Something clever about doing our best to match internet prices if you come over and have a chat at the counter (giving you the catalyst for a relationship that could lead to a loyal customer), and/or politely extolling the work that the bookshop does to curate it's collection, and that you may never have found it if it wasn't for your thoughtful local bookseller! I find it hard to sypathize with local businesses that I have no connection to, but the ones I do frequent, I feel at home in. I go to retail locations to browse, or because I know I'll get a level of service (and personal interaction) that can't be matched online (being able to try things on, asking for reccomendations, ordering off the menu, chitchat on similiar topics, etc.)
I find this most dramatic with Barnes & Nobles. The store price is significantly higher than .com price, making it real hard to justify buying something of a shelf when the pricing differential makes it seem B&N is begging me to buy online instead. I'll often banter with the staff a la "this is $60, but you've got it for $40 on your website - I'd really rather buy it here to support the brick-and-mortar store, can't I get some discount like $10 off? No? Really?" and then end up ordering it from Amazon because it's cheaper still, free shipping, extra credit-card rewards points, a cut goes to a favorite charity (http://smile.amazon.com people!), and get some bonus back for opting for delayed delivery.
Physical stores are increasingly just museums to me: a place to spend time looking at interesting things.
Our local Barnes and Noble has turned into a gift store. Flashy, inoffensive, stereotypical, light, current, topical, looks good on coffee table.
If they're in/from a culture that likes books, and you forgot about the birthday party this afternoon, you go to B+N and as a punishment pay list price instead of online Amazon prices. Its just like if you stop at a gas station convenience store in an emergency, don't expect health store quality or discount supermarket prices, but you can expect to walk out the door with at least something more or less usable. If they don't like books, B+N now sells legacy music CDs, dvds, board games, legos, kids toys, chocolate bars, coffee, magazines, pretty much anything in the store can be wrapped up as a gift for someone else in a couple hours. But its all pretty bland inoffensive, send auntie to pick something up for her nephew, kind of shopping destination.
They seem to have almost no competition as one of the very few stores left in the big suburban mall that isn't a womens clothes store or a food court. Its not like I can hang out in the Radio Shack anymore, LOL. Its sort of a more conformist "hot topic" but without the band tee shirts.
Some folks predict the death of B+N because of the decline in book selling, but books are only about half the floor space so they can just shove out the books, public library style, then move in some cell phone accessories, americana home decorating novelties, maybe candy, posters, maybe candles, maybe housewares, and honestly rebrand it as a gift store.
Or in summary B+N is not primarily a book store and has not been one for some time. Its a gift store that is currently, temporarily unusually heavy on physical book stock.
books are only about half the floor space so they can just shove out the books, public library style
3 new libraries have opened near me in recent years. I've been stunned at how few books they have for the floorspace available (and not just that they're planning to fill it, the non-book floorspace isn't usable for books by design). My own personal library seems just one order of magnitude smaller.
I am totally okay with spending extra for not-Amazon (especially after they started paying sales tax), and I usually do, but it’s still sad that it feels like a charity surcharge at this point.
same situation here in India. Flipkart has changed the book business forever. Today people go to bookshops just to read / try out the book for free, then place an order in their mobile app!
It depends upon what kind of book you're looking for. What you say is mostly true for textbooks, potboilers, and the like.
If, on the other hand, you're looking for something like an affordable version of Galbraith's "The Emperor and the Wolf", you're better off asking at your friendly neighbourhood bookstore.
If you're in Bangalore, I'd point you towards Blossom's, Select or Goobeys (all in the vicinity of Church Street). Not only is their selection fairly eclectic, but you get a good variety of used books as well. Pretty much nothing - Flipkart or Amazon - comes close.
Most business shut down because they don't reinvent themselves. If you continue to do what you have been doing you will become obsolete.
Bookstores need to find new model of keeping their customers.
Also its not the online competition but also the pirated books market, where you can find all the NY best sellers at a very cheap price on the streets of India.
Students don't buy textbooks but xerox them from seniors or infact there are some shops where they offer to create copies of such highly recommended textbooks for a fraction of the price.
I have purchased 100's of books most of them because while flipping them I happen to stumble upon a paragraph or quite which reasonated with me or the table of contents seem to contain what I was eager to learn.
Amazon offers that with their quick look feature.
Only thing I hated about offline bookstores was that I had to tilt my neck sideways to read the title of these books.
- Have one copy of each book, like a library, with the option of ordering a copy in, available for browsing.
- People can pay $10 for a day pass to come in and enjoy the facilities:
unlimited books,
coffee on tap in reusable mugs,
soup on tap in reusable bowls,
showers,
free wi-fi,
lockers (lockers are pay-for-time),
inexpensive sandwiches,
comfy seats
all in a convenient walkable location.
- Option to buy the book you were reading for Kindle or order a physical copy, to be delivered in two days (pay for shipping) or pickup at the bookshop (free shipping).
I think model needs a social element and an experience element and not just the ownership of an asset.
* More author visits and signing and book reading sessions, More QnA's with Authors.
* Work with nearest businesses for peer coupons and if any customer buys a coffee at the nearest starbucks give him a coupon which lasts 2 hours for the books. This way force customer to come into your shop even when they left the house without any thought of buying the books.
* Trunk Club like service for books. Send them books and they can keep the ones they want and return the rest. This can be done by somehow making sure only first x%/20%/50% book can be read and if consumer still wants to read it they will have to break the seal which will be considered as a purchase.
The problem would be such a facility will have a hard time competing with a...
1.Libraries without being subsidized from tax payers (free to enter and borrow books)
2.Big stores like B&N which have coffee and sandwich shops now and allow browsing and are free to enter.
I think goodreads is good enough. If a website gets popular enough there are no shortage of people that are willing to share their thoughts on books for free.
The trouble is how do you find the needle in the haystack?
If there isn't financial reward you won't have experts who can devote their lives to finding & sharing the good stuff.
Maybe it will work like this: Before there would be people who's full time job was to find great books. Now there are tens of thousands of people who, on their spare time, find those books & report back online.
The reality though is that any sort of review system gets hacked. Amazon, yelp, & trip advisor are good examples.
My personal experience with store clerks over the decades indicates severely rose colored glasses over the idealized concept of store clerks coincidentally being extremely highly educated in my momentary topic of interest.
Most of the time, store clerks have been experts at shoveling product on shelves, making change, and telling me all about their art history degree while I'm trying to find a gift for my son who likes minecraft. Insert the stereotypical Radio Shack experience of trying to locate an over priced adapter that the clerk can't help find while being grilled about my cell phone plan as opposed to their cell phone plan. I'm sure there have occasionally existed useful store clerks and customers who somehow know less than the clerks, but it seems to have been statistically very rare.
A quarter century ago as a part time student at a food store just to pick up beer money, it was comical watching customers ask me and my coworkers cooking questions. "Well, I'm not really sure how to cook that, but I've watched my mom and she usually bakes roasts for a long time in the oven". "Sorry I don't know anything about frozen chitlins". "I've never made jello, but I think there are instructions on the box". Underemployment and economic conditions were not quite as severe back then, now a days food stores probably have out of work trained chefs as employees.
If I look at my algorithmically optimized feed, I obviously do not see the things most of my contacts like/share/read/click/dislike/pin/and so on. I see the things the algo decides are fitting for me to optimize for ad-value.
If I could filter the raw feeds of my contacts and could weight them (ideally regarding the topic, as some people are weighted more on privacy matters and lower on food matters), I would be able to use the social knowledge within my contacts to create a curated list of (hopefully) interesting (at least for me) things.
These would be weighted, so that the more time I had, the more I could go down that list.
If then I had a way to tell this curation mechanism, that I did like this piece more then that, and the third one was bullshit, over time, it could learn even better.
And then I would finally end up within my own echo chamber. At least if I would not do the hard work of curating my contacts in a way, that counters this.
This social web might be good for nice pictures of cat, but the more I have to do with it, the less it really seems to deliver on its promises.
I still prefer to buy my books from physical book stores. Having all the books I read listed in a few central databases owned by companies like Amazon makes me uncomfortable.
However, if anyone comes up with a way to sell/rent ebooks while preserving my privacy, that would be nice, since I'm not always in a big city where there are any decent bookshops.
If you had a list of all the books I've read in my whole life, then that would give you a pretty good idea of what kind of person I am, and what I'm interested in.
There are plenty of examples throughout history and around the world, of governments harassing people they don't like. Of course, as of right now, this kind of thing is not a huge problem in most Western countries. However, governments sometimes change, which is why it's bad to have those kinds of databases sitting there.
For example, if I had lived in Chile back in the 70s and bought lots of books on socialism, I may have gotten in some serious trouble after Pinochet took over (if such databases had existed back then). Or if I had lived in Lithuania in the 30s and bought lots of books on capitalism, I guess Siberia would have been my next home, when the Soviets took over.
TBH in the UK I wouldn't put it past my local council (who run the public library) to be selling library user data (and probably getting a low price for it too).
For one, libraries takes your privacy seriously. At least here in Sweden. If I recall correctly, it's because of The Library Act/Law, which stipulates that lender/reader privacy must be protected.
(AFAIK It's not something that needs to be regulated, as it's generally well respected by libraries and librarians)
I made an attempt at digitally replicating the bookstore-browsing experience.
What I learned: while there is no shortage of people who appreciate the idea, the number who would appreciate the same experience made virtual is exceedingly small. Small enough to not make an attempt like this worth it.
I haven't completely abandoned it...but I am now tweaking it to make something more widely appreciable [ with a new name and new site, so no shameless plug here ;) ].
Bittersweet: seeing a whole wall of the unmistakable blue spines of Lonely Planet guides behind him, another venerable publishing institution that's having a hard time transitioning to the digital age.
Nowadays most people (including myself) prefer the convenience of digital books (EPUB, PDF, etc).
I still do buy and read physical books, but then again I can easily put dozens or even hundreds of digital books on my iPad for reading while travelling.
No. The article was written ~3.5 years ago, and it's predictions doesn't seem to hold true. Ebook readers still use the same formats, the same distribution, etc.
That being said I still am a supporter of digital technical books. The information goes out of date too quickly for a physical book to be useful. However, if you want to read Homer's The Iliad, it may be better to have a physical copy you can read before bed and retain on your shelves for easy access.
F.lux, redshift and similar software is supposed to help with the blue light problem, though I don't know if it's scientifically sound. I use them because I find it more pleasant, but I can't say I had trouble sleeping before.
What I've noticed is that so many people don't reduce their brightness. I usually always have my monitor at lowest brightness. Also adjusting the brightness with software (xgamma) can make monitors somewhat close to an experience like a newspaper with a lamp nearby.
You could easily put dozens or even hundreds of digital book on your iPad ...but do you really read them ? Personally, I have completed reading more dead-tree books than ebooks. I don't really know why, maybe it's just the habit and the 'feel' of actually 'moving' through the book. I used to be a huge proponent of ebooks and I still maintain a digital copy, if possible, of all the dead-tree books I own and have read but I now prefer doing my 'primary' serious reading on dead-tree.
To some extent, that is true for me. However, for technical books or travel books, nothing beats having a physical copy in your hands, and reading it on paper.
For technical books that I am reading for understanding I prefer paper books.
My memory filing system for things I have read sometimes uses tactile, visual and physical clues which exist for paper books but not for ebooks. The vague memory of a concept from a book may come back to me with a sense of the size, shape, colour of the book, which page the passage was on, whether it was 25% or 50% through the book and so on. These physical memories help put me back in the "moment of comprehension when I was reading" so I can recall the details.
Evidence that paper is better for reading comprehension
http://sciencenordic.com/paper-beats-computer-screens
"... when you read a text on paper your understanding is deeper and longer lasting than if you read that same text on a computer [...] if you read the text on a screen you can probably recount what you read. But you cannot as readily make use of the content in other contexts. You haven’t comprehended it as deeply and assimilated it as substantially."
What about marginalia? Paper books let me have a conversation with the text --- and with whoever owned (and marked) the book before me. Not every book needs or deserves this sort of attention, but for those that do, paper is irreplacable.
The kindle has a touch screen so that you can save highlights, and write notes. It also has a feature where you can see which passages have been highlighted by the hundreds of readers before you, and share your notes publicly.
This is so pretentious nostalgia. The "conversation" is really the smell of whatever food/water spilled on the book and the tears and folds of the book.
> If you like books for the"feel", you are missing the point of reading.
Heh, you made me smile :-) ..like a big wide grin. I'm missing the ^point^ of reading ?? Because, I like to hold the book as I read it ? Seriously ?
Nobody told me there was a point to it, I always thought reading is its own joy. To feel the flavor of the words and to hear the rhythm of the sentence was supposed to be point, if there was one.
The 'feel' of flipping pages is just a nostalgia worth holding onto, for me. Especially so when the words are actually typeset in a manner where page breaks provide transition. You know what else I like besides holding the book and flipping the pages ? I like bookmarks. I enjoy placing them and taking the time to pause, to enjoy. I like the smell of fresh print. I like leather bound, hardcover and paperback in that order. Is all of that missing the point of reading as well ? Am I not a ^serious reader^ because I cling to the physical manifestation ? Poor me, the amateur reader.
I concur. I was quite late to jump on the e-book wagon (mostly due to DRM), but I am quite happy "renting" books on my Kindle, being aware of its limitations. When I read, I don't feel the pages turn, either with a dead tree book or e-book. I simply read the streams of characters, and my hand does some sort of strictly irrelevant gesture to move the stream ahead.
From a more practical standpoint, the possibility of storing loads of books on my Kindle is greatly appreciated. I recently spent a week at a hospital, and the Kindle entertained me through days of idle time.
How do you know most people prefer digital books over printed books?
I certainly don't prefer digital books over printed books. Although that said, I'm not arguing that I am like most people and that I'm included in the above statement.
I'm asking as you stated it matter of fact, so I assume you have some kind of source. I'm genuinely curious and this is a serious question.
That is more than a book a day. Unless you work as a editor or not work at all I can't see how that's possible but I have no reason not to believe you so what's your secret?
And also the record store. Times change, industry needs to adjust. This isn't just the result of the internet, but technology and people's habit as a whole.
This makes me sad. It feels like the slow passing of a loved age. I had the same feeling when an old bookstore called "Premier" closed in Bangalore may years ago.
I doubt algorithms and AI can replace the feel of a quiet bookstore where you can browse old, new and unrelated books. Maybe meet someone else with a passion for reading and strike up a conversation, perhaps a friendship.
He should pivot to more of a rare-book, specialty shop if he can. I mean I see a shelf full of travel books to Canada. That's like selling paper maps when I have GPS.
