Meeting people where they are
Last week, I visited with friends in Nashville and made the trek to the Parnassus, the bookstore owned by Ann Patchett. And, as I had hoped, it was an entire store filled with well-selected books that I wanted to read. Even the religion section. The sales associates were knowledgeable and had an informed review of every book we purchased. I breathed in the rare beauty of the moment. There are only big box stores in Chattanooga—Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million. So, every time I visit a decent-sized city, I try to visit their independent stores—Politics and Prose in D.C., Malaprops in Asheville, or St. Marks in New York City.
As I stroll the shelves, enraptured by the smell of real paper and binding glue, I think about the transformations in publishing. Independent stores are an endangered species. Big box bookstores are no longer buying hundreds of books and destroying the un-purchased copies (it was cheaper than shipping them back to the publisher). Big stores are being threatened by Amazon. Amazon was great, until they became so dominant that they start bullying publishers.
I’m saddened by many of the changes, but I also know that my own habits don’t always support my aspirations for the book industry. Typically, when perusing religion, once a person reads all that Barbara Brown Taylor and Nadia Bolz-Weber has to offer, she quickly slides into the glossy-teethed televangelists and FOX News anchors pawning their wares, and there are not a lot of options.
