The Great Debate: Big mega-store vs Small corner-store
May 08 '01 (Updated May 09 '01)
The Bottom Line The eternal battle rages on between the mega-chains and the corner bookstore. Here are my thoughts on the great debate.
or the mighty Barnes and Nobles versus the tiny local MIT Press bookstore
The eternal battle rages on between the mega-chains and the corner bookstore. The local corner stores are hanging on the brink. Here are my thoughts on the great debate.
Against the tide of people who constantly lament the disappearance of the little cozy corner bookshop, I always retorted with a spirited defense of Barnes and Nobles, or Borders, or whichever mega-store may be nearest you. Some may call me a corporate apologist, but I am not deterred. I love Barnes and Nobles. I love the huge selection. I love the nice safe décor. I love the comfort that everywhere I go, they are all the same, the same cushy couches, the generally friendly service. I love how they are all organized the same, so I know where to find the books that I am looking for, and there huge size makes it likely they will have what I need. They are bastions of familiarity in unfamiliar places, like a McDonalds.
The clear success of these mega-chains demonstrated by that rapid proliferation, backs me up. Those who stand opposed I occasionally mock (light heartedly of course) as being book-snobs, who would not dare be seen cavorting amonst the masses.
However, to be honest, returning to visit my college campus, I was reminded of a bookstore I used to haunt with great frequency. Not the huge pan-biblio campus mega-bookstore, but the tiny one across the street, tucked in an old office building, the private bookstore of the MIT-affiliated publisher, the MIT Press. In this cozy little store, about the size of a large bedroom, crammed to the brim, you find the books published by the Press, but also gems selected by the staff like: Imagining Language: An Anthology, Information Ecologies: Using Technologies With Heart, The Computer Music Tutorial, When Things Start to Think, High Noon on the Electronic Frontier: Conceptual Issues in Cyberspace, and Information Inequality: The Deepening Social Crisis in America. I could spend hours there, and if I had to pick, I would call it my favorite.
In defense of the little bookstore, people often claim relationships with the staff, more interesting décor, more intimate surroundings, atmosphere. However, what is less often mentioned is why the MIT Press store is beloved to me: editorial character
This feature is actually the research I was conducting that brought me to epinions in the first place. As information becomes commoditized, we need editors to find the relevant information. Plastic.com does this for news. Epinions does this for opinions. All the information here was out there before. What epinions does is it creates a forum that turns the community into the editorial board.
With Amazon.com offering every book you could possibly want, we are awash in a sea of possibilities. For this reason, if you find a specialty, neighborhood, cozy bookshop that fits your personality, you have truly found a gem worth saving.
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Of course, I still do most of shopping online via Amazon or at my local Barnes and Nobles, and what with epinions as editorial review, maybe the bookstore as editor is unnecessary, but I just thought I would offer this thought for discussion.
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Epinions.com ID:
benho
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Member: Ben Ho
Location: New York, NY, USA
Reviews written: 65
Trusted by: 52 members
About Me:
The end (of grad school) is near... off now to teach in cold Ithaca.
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