Comments on: Lit Blogs and Amazon http://www.babygotbooks.com/2009/05/05/lit-blogs-and-amazon/ Your head will collapse if there's nothing in it Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:16:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Max http://www.babygotbooks.com/2009/05/05/lit-blogs-and-amazon/comment-page-1/#comment-250447 Max Tue, 05 May 2009 19:25:46 +0000 http://www.babygotbooks.com/?p=2411#comment-250447 Tim, Thanks for the kind words. We're glad you found the series worthwhile. Tim, Thanks for the kind words. We’re glad you found the series worthwhile.

]]> By: Len http://www.babygotbooks.com/2009/05/05/lit-blogs-and-amazon/comment-page-1/#comment-250426 Len Tue, 05 May 2009 13:45:59 +0000 http://www.babygotbooks.com/?p=2411#comment-250426 I tend to be skeptical of this pitting of the Goliath Amazon against the David of independent bookstores and with the tactic of equating a purchase at one or the other as some sort of moral or ethical victory or defeat. The assumption is that society can only support one or the other, an idea that I find neither provable nor true. there's a place for Amazon and there's a place for independents. And if independent stores have a true enemy, it is the big box stores, especially Barnes and Noble, that actually do seek to run independent bookstores--as direct competition--out of business. For whatever the virtues of Amazon may be, they do not include the pleasure of picking up a volume and thumbing through it and of walking away with your prize right at that moment. They do not include the serendipity of finding a book you never would have looked for languishing on a table. It misses sensations tactile, visual, and aural. Going to Amazon is a transaction. Going to a bookstore is an event. But independents also have their limitations. Their selections are limited by space and capital. The quality of the customer service (which is B&N's greatest advantage over most of its competitors) varies wildly from store-to-store. Why go to an independent if I'm going to be ignored or treated as an encumbrance? There is room for both. Support your local bookstore. The country needs every good bookstore it can get its hands on. But don't feel guilty if occasionally circumstance leads you to buy from Amazon. And the few pennies that might be gotten from ordering a book from Amazon courtesy of Baby Got Books also supports a good and worthy thing. I tend to be skeptical of this pitting of the Goliath Amazon against the David of independent bookstores and with the tactic of equating a purchase at one or the other as some sort of moral or ethical victory or defeat. The assumption is that society can only support one or the other, an idea that I find neither provable nor true. there’s a place for Amazon and there’s a place for independents. And if independent stores have a true enemy, it is the big box stores, especially Barnes and Noble, that actually do seek to run independent bookstores–as direct competition–out of business.

For whatever the virtues of Amazon may be, they do not include the pleasure of picking up a volume and thumbing through it and of walking away with your prize right at that moment. They do not include the serendipity of finding a book you never would have looked for languishing on a table. It misses sensations tactile, visual, and aural.

Going to Amazon is a transaction. Going to a bookstore is an event.

But independents also have their limitations. Their selections are limited by space and capital. The quality of the customer service (which is B&N’s greatest advantage over most of its competitors) varies wildly from store-to-store. Why go to an independent if I’m going to be ignored or treated as an encumbrance?

There is room for both. Support your local bookstore. The country needs every good bookstore it can get its hands on. But don’t feel guilty if occasionally circumstance leads you to buy from Amazon. And the few pennies that might be gotten from ordering a book from Amazon courtesy of Baby Got Books also supports a good and worthy thing.

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