Thursday, July 10, 2008

Booking Through Thursday


Today's Question:

One of my favorite bookstores burned down last weekend, and while I only got to visit there while I was on vacation, it made me stop and think.

What would you do if, all of a sudden, your favorite source of books was unavailable?

Whether it’s a local book shop, your town library, or an internet shop … what would you do if, suddenly, they were out of business? Devastatingly, and with no warning? Where would you go for books instead? What would you do? If it was a local business you would try to help out the owners? Would you just calmly start buying from some other store? Visit the library in the next town instead? Would it be devastating? Or just a blip in your reading habit?

That's a hard question to answer. Living where I do, in a very academic and intellectually-oriented town, I am blessed to say that there is no shortage of bookstores. I'm almost embarrassed to say this, because I know a lot of people live in areas with only one bookstore, or only one indie bookstore, but if one of the stores closed I would just start shopping at another. If it was a local business and it closed because of fire or some natural disaster I'd try to help the owners. I feel terrible for the owners of that store on Martha's Vineyard that burned down last weekend and I hope they bounce back. That's just not fair.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It really isn't fair, how sad! I too hope they can get back on their feet.

Boston is a brilliant place for bookstores, I really miss having a selection of used bookstores that I could frequent whenever I wanted. I'd move back there if given the opportunity!

Allison said...

Losing a bookstore and books at that to a fire...is so sad...hope they can get it cleaned up and open again.

Here is my Booking through thursday response!

http://allisonsatticblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/booking-through-thursday.html

Alea said...

Living in the suburbs doesn't give me too much variety for book shopping. But when I do plan trips to some of my other favorite stores nearby it's a very exciting day!

Lori Thornton said...

There is not a good bookstore in my smaller city so I usually drive to Knoxville for good bookstores if I want to browse, but I usually purchase from Amazon. The money I save in gas from their Prime Shipping option is worth it. I would be devastated if they closed, but I could order from places like Barnes & Noble, Borders, BAMM, or even the Strand. I would be much more devastated if I lived near a really good independent bookstore that burned. I enjoyed the availability of good bookstores in many places throughout the Boston area when I was there. I do check books out of the library because I'm a librarian, but I don't check out as many as I probably should! As gas prices keep going up, I may be forced to cut my book purchases and opt for more library usage!

Literary Feline said...

That was sad news about the bookstore that burned down. How tragic! I think I would put in an extra effort to help out in that case too.

Like you, I live in an area where there are a number of bookstores within close proximity and so losing one wouldn't make that much of a difference.