> On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:59:53 -0700 (PDT), mike larkin
> <mike_larkin2001 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Can I suggest that outside of the big cities, the
>> value of independent bookstores is vastly over-rated?
>> Ten years ago, there were no chain bookstores here in
>> central CT (and no independents of any value). Now I'm
>> only ten minutes away from at least three bookstores
>> chock full of Chomsky, served up by kids with nifty
>> punk rock haircuts. How is this a bad thing?
>
>
> Location, location goes the saying.
> Yup, when I venture outside the radlib bubble here in SF and
> Berkeley/Oakland, like a visit w/ my Sister, who lives close to
> Colorado Springs, Ground Zero of the Xtian Right yahoos, the Borders
> stores w/ their vast stock of lefty books, same selection as SF Union
> Square was a haven of sanity. So, in the vast stretches of the USA w/o
> an indy left bookstore, go to Borders.
Yes, Michael, I can buy organic products at the Wal-Mart down the street, but you won't find me singing the praises of Wal-Mart. And I can drive to Lawrence to shop at the Community Mercantile which bill itself as a worker-owned natural foods store, but which isn't and hasn't been since it decided that beating Whole Foods meant becoming a clone of Whole Foods.
Yeah sure, you can find a few lefty books at Borders and Barnes and Noble. But in my travels I have yet to encounter one of these stores that even remotely approximates the selection and stock of a good indie bookstore, esepcially the big ones that the chain stores have put out of
business over the past 15 years. There is a Borders here in Overland park which has more radical titles than most, but one or two employees using their selection allotment does not make up for the selection of a good indie bookstore. Yes, I can drive 5 minutes to a Barnes and Noble and ten minutes to a Borders and buy some Chomsky--which is an improvement over 15 years ago--but most of Kansas City doesn't even have nearby access to one of these chain bookstores.
I will grant that a few areas of the U.S. now has better access to a bookstore thanks to these big chains, but we're not talking here about a significant improvement when it comes to what's actually in these stores. Yes, you can buy Chomsky and some lefty books in these stores. But you simply do not have access to the depth of left titles that existed in indie bookstores of 15 years ago. I don't have any stats on this, but my gut feeling is that the backlist of left titles is much less than it was 15 years ago before Borders ruined everything. That would make sense because corporate bookstores have little interest in selling Chomsky, Zinn, Roy or Henwood. Chain bookstores exist to make a profit and selling quality books is not a high priority. Just look at the layout of these bookstores. Are the "Current Events" books near the front registers? The history section? Nope, corporate bookstores make their money from selling stuff like gift books and coffee. Sure, they make money from selling books, but the best way to understand a corporate bookstore is to know about the old criticism of them as using "books as wallpaper."
One of the more annoying myths about corporate bookstores is that "they have everything." What they have is lots of copies of a limited selection of titles. The number of titles in the science fiction section of a corporate bookstore is less than what you would find ina good science fiction bookstore (in the ones that still exist).
I think that some of you who remember what indie bookstores were like 15 years ago have that gut feeling that there has been a decline in the number of titles available in bookstores.
We've lost a significant asset to our intellectual culture with the victory of corporate bookstores over indie bookstores. This has hurt the left especially hard. Yes, it is cool that suburbanites are reading the few radical titles available on the newstand of Borders, but thee used to be more left magazines and we reached tons of people who really appreciated left magazines. That's another thing that corporate bookstores have killed: indie newstands. Think about Pick-a-book which used to exist in Madison, Wisconsin. Or the selection at Cody's in Berkeley. The newstands at the corporate bookstores may carry a few radical titles, but they have nowhere near the range of titles at a good indie newstand.
I'm glad that Lance pointed out the other important aspects of radical bookstores and spaces. They provide much more than a place to buy books and magazines. They are social centers which provide crucial networking and intellectual support for our movements. They are important counter-institutions. Buying Chomsky at Borders is a sterile experience, whereas at a radical bookstore you can buy Chomsky, the Ward Churchill video, and start a new group over a conversation with comrades. Indie and radical bookstores also provide important support for new radical authors and indie/alternative presses.
A good independent bookstore can't be replaced by any number of corporate bookstores.
Chuck0