The Death of Bookstores

Bookstores are on the verge of extinction. With the growth of online shopping, bookstores are becoming redundant and therefore most of the bookstores are closing. Most notably, Borders and Angus and Robertson are the major stores that have gone under.

But why? Online shopping is so much easier. You can shop in your pyjamas while you're in bed watching a movie and have it delivered to your home without once stepping outside. One of the best websites in which to buy books is The Book Depository (one of my own personal favourites). They're a UK based bookseller and they have been recently been purchased by Amazon. The books are cheap and it has free shipping. The reason that they're so cheap is because they (usually) print on demand, though they do have some warehouses incase of returns and other things, and the shipping price is factored into the overall cost (but they're still cheaper than everywhere else). So these online bookstores, because of how cheap and accessible they are, have put in store bookstores out of business.

Not only is it online bookstores that are putting physical bookstores out of business, but ebooks are too. Ebooks are easier to carry around on your Kindle or Kobo (or whatever else you read on) and you can have hundreds at your beck and call, rather than carrying around 10 heavy books in the hope that you might want to read one or all of them. Usually you can get most of the ebooks for free, and if you did pay for them, you'd only be paying about $3.

Last year for Christmas, my brother bought me a Kobo E-Reader. I was grateful for the gift but I was unhappy at the thought of cheating on my books with ebook versions (that always have a large number of typos which makes me want to stop reading the book). I used to select a few books from my bookshelf and pack it into my 'book suitcase'. Then I realised how amazing E-Readers are. I can carry hundreds of books around with me and I'm not weighed down. However, I'm an old fashioned girl. I love the feel of a book in my hand or the smell of one as I turn the pages. This is why I am sad about bookstores closing down. I like to visit stores and be surrounded by thousands of books. I do and always will love the feel of a book in my hand and visit my local bookstores (AllBooks4Less, $5 books) as much as possible.

Read more at:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-02-18/internet-spells-the-death-of-bookstores/1947920