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Mar. 31st, 2009
books without bricks
Mar. 31st, 2009 10:05 pmThe February/March 2009 issue of The Bulletin of the SFWA was a pleasure to read.
This time around, Robert Metzger’s scientific speculations show how the death of one cute little girl killed by sharks could lead to an all-out war against land sharks that culminates when the latter, after attacking the Phoenix suburbs, seize the nukes of a submarine in San Diego. His point is that, when you think up a future society, you should keep something in mind about humans: we tend to ignore what kills anonymous thousands, for example the smoking of cigarettes, but something that gives a face to death may have people react and Do Something About It, way beyond the actual risk of death from that cause.
The Resnick-Malzberg Dialogues resonated particularly strongly with me because, this time, they talk about the disappearance of bookstores. For years, I’ve read about bookstore chains which, after wiping out the independents, have been acquired by other chains when they don’t outright fail. This time though, I’m seeing it happen. There is this chain store I used to go to frequently, but less and less now because they never seemed to have the books I was looking for, and it turns out that the chain itself, Borders, is not doing well at all and definitely appears to be on its way out. Because of that, I’ve been going to the nearby Barnes & Noble store. That makes me feel like I am helping to hasten the demise of Borders. Ironically, Barnes & Noble isn’t doing that well either, although not as badly. That being said, Resnick & Malzberg remind us that, just because something is passing away, it doesn’t mean that the world is coming to an end, but that it’s changing. They point out that one can now buy books directly from small presses, and that there are now online bookstores. Not just the 500-pound gorillas(1) like Amazon. There are plenty of stores out there, as sites like Alibris show.
I accidentally proved their point, not much later.
After reading Bud Webster’s column, I went to Alibris and purchased Don Wollheim’s Ace Double 2-anthology book Adventures in the Far Future / Tales of Outer Space, and David McDaniels’s The Dagger Affair, a Man from UNCLE novel.
Still, I’d miss brick-and-mortar bookstores if they went away.
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(1) I don’t know about you, but even a 100-pound gorilla is a being I wouldn’t want to mess with. But I digress.
This time around, Robert Metzger’s scientific speculations show how the death of one cute little girl killed by sharks could lead to an all-out war against land sharks that culminates when the latter, after attacking the Phoenix suburbs, seize the nukes of a submarine in San Diego. His point is that, when you think up a future society, you should keep something in mind about humans: we tend to ignore what kills anonymous thousands, for example the smoking of cigarettes, but something that gives a face to death may have people react and Do Something About It, way beyond the actual risk of death from that cause.
The Resnick-Malzberg Dialogues resonated particularly strongly with me because, this time, they talk about the disappearance of bookstores. For years, I’ve read about bookstore chains which, after wiping out the independents, have been acquired by other chains when they don’t outright fail. This time though, I’m seeing it happen. There is this chain store I used to go to frequently, but less and less now because they never seemed to have the books I was looking for, and it turns out that the chain itself, Borders, is not doing well at all and definitely appears to be on its way out. Because of that, I’ve been going to the nearby Barnes & Noble store. That makes me feel like I am helping to hasten the demise of Borders. Ironically, Barnes & Noble isn’t doing that well either, although not as badly. That being said, Resnick & Malzberg remind us that, just because something is passing away, it doesn’t mean that the world is coming to an end, but that it’s changing. They point out that one can now buy books directly from small presses, and that there are now online bookstores. Not just the 500-pound gorillas(1) like Amazon. There are plenty of stores out there, as sites like Alibris show.
I accidentally proved their point, not much later.
After reading Bud Webster’s column, I went to Alibris and purchased Don Wollheim’s Ace Double 2-anthology book Adventures in the Far Future / Tales of Outer Space, and David McDaniels’s The Dagger Affair, a Man from UNCLE novel.
Still, I’d miss brick-and-mortar bookstores if they went away.
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(1) I don’t know about you, but even a 100-pound gorilla is a being I wouldn’t want to mess with. But I digress.