Is this how you want to buy your books?

I felt somewhat saddened today as I was flicking through the Times and saw the headline, 'Pulp fiction: the crisis facing the book trade'. 

"Traditional bookshops are closing; vending machines are churning out novels; and e-books are the new paperbacks - so is this the final chapter for the book industry?" writes Nicholas Clee

What really made me stop and think was talk about the Espresso Book Machine and as the name denotes it means instant books - although not quite as quick and satisfying as a strong shot, me thinks. Apparently this EBS - as those in the know refer to it - looks something like an over scale photocopier. This machine stores up to 400,000 titles, which are digitised texts, and shoots out the book in paperback version in about twenty minutes. At the same time as books join diet drinks and junk food in vending machines, Amazon has also launched a revised Kindle e-reader with newer and wider screen so that the problems of zooming and scrolling are no longer. 

What these weird and wonderful inventions do suggest is that book sales are down in the traditional way and that the book industry is searching for new ways to supplement revenue. Book stores are feeling the pressure from internet sites and can in no way compete with the likes of Amazon or other online shopping services. As much as I am a bookworm and love nothing more than an afternoon spent browsing in Hatchards, which I think is the best book shop in London - or anywhere for that matter, I have bought many more books from Amazon than I ever have bought from Hatchards. And this is the sorry truth. As passionate as we are about books, as loyal as we are as customers and as intellectually committed as we are to the survival of the book trade nothing beats Amazon for ease and choice. But what this does lead me to think about is the price of convenience.

The price for my convenience will be the loss of one of my most loved and happy past times. Book shops will close their doors, many small independents have already, and I will no longer be able to browse at my leisure, enjoy superb prose for free or gaze at the illustrated and photographic books without being obligated in any way. The truth is I have taken book shops for granted.  

I am going to try harder to support book shops, be more patient about titles that are on back order and buy less online. It will cost more but it will be worth it to stand in the presence of real books, to turn over the pages and to feel the smooth and rough texture of different papers. I could not bare to think that our children would never know what the inside of a living bookstore looks like, xv.

article - The Times arts, style life