What do you think?

The Best Part of Today #93:

Renwed hope in an old industry.

I saw a television ad for the Kindle the other day that ended with the tagline "the book lives on." It may just be me and my excessive dislike for Kindles (not all eReaders, just Kindles), but I feel that statement is grossly inappropriate for the product it is advertising. Concerns over "the death of the book" have stemmed from the creation from electronic reading devices such as the Kindle. Literature may evolve in the form of an eBook, a platform that devices the like the Kindle are perpetuating, but it will always be around. No one is fearing for the imminent death of literature. What is at stake is the printed book, not literature itself. To say that the thing endangering paper books is also something that keeps books alive is more than an atrocious fallacy.

The book publishing world has faced some severe shakeups recently, notably the chain bookstore giant Borders declaring chapter 11 bankruptcy a week or so ago, and is set to close 200 stores, about a third of its locations nationwide. But recently, while reading the same medium that brought me news of Border's financial woes (the print New York Times), I read a very encouraging article about the state of the printed industry called "Books Fly Off Unusual Shelves." In spite of, or perhaps even because of, bookstore closings, publishers have been seeing a growth of revenue from books sold in specialty stores. Boutiques like Kitson in LA, as well as edgy national clothing chains like Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters have experimented with selling "novelty books" in the past. Now publishers are pouncing on the opportunity to sell more popular mainstream books in such stores.

This heartens me, and makes me believe that, like literature, which will always be around in various evolving capacities, bookselling will evolve too, not disappear entirely. I can only hope that this is the case for the future.