Friday, July 26, 2013

Why Even Indie Bookstore Loyalists Should Want Barnes & Noble to Succeed

 
 

Why Even Indie Bookstore Loyalists Should Want Barnes & Noble to Succeed

I’ve found myself watching the Nora Ephron-directed 1998 rom-com You’ve Got Mail more than a few times, wondering how Meg Ryan would have fared if she had just held out a few more years against the massive corporate bookstore owned and operated by Tom Hanks. Another possibly inconceivable and unmentioned alternative for Ryan’s 1990s Manhattanite would be moving her operation to Brooklyn. An indie bookstore that specializes in books for kids like The Shop Around the Corner would no doubt thrive in a child-friendly neighborhood like Park Slope, or at least it does in the as-yet-to-be-written fan fiction I dream about. The truth is, the story would have had a surprising outcome if Ryan’s character would have just kept going, eventually triumphing over the cold and evil Fox Books after Kindles and iPads came to town. That is, for many, the reality of bookselling today.

… Read More

No comments: