So today our outing was to Costco on 53rd South. I was looking for a book, and Tom and I could not find the books. "How can we be missing the books? It's a huge section." I said.
We had to ask someone and we followed the aisle and, yes, there were some books, a few books, a lot of ridiculous cartoon-like books for small children and a heap of religious books. What happened to the best sellers? The hardbacks? The book section was a fourth of its normal size.
I asked the guy at the counter, "What happened to the book section. It's shriveled up."
"Haven't you heard?" he said. "No one reads books."
"I must have been reading a book when that news came out," I said.
"What?" he asked. "I can't hear you; I'm texting."
A little humor at Costco.
The first time I ever went to Costco was when I was teaching in Hawaii. I went with Barbara and Laura in the van. I had a total agoraphobic reaction. "I can't shop here," I said going into panic mode.
And then I saw the books. "I'll stand here. Pick me up when you're finished." And they did.
I must admit that I used to buy a lot more books at Costco--now I get them in Kindle.
ReplyDeleteI was at my local costco in Utah Valley and was impressed with the books (I'm a young mother and must not get out much) they had nicely bound editions of Jane Austen, Sherlock Holmes, Poe etc... I don't know about best-sellers because I just don't get out that much.
ReplyDeleteGive me a real book any day I will not succumb to technology. There is just something about holding a book. It's a small treasure. We spend too much time in front of screens as it is. Our Costco still has the full run of books but I prefer to go to a real bookstore, it's a multi-sensory field trip.
ReplyDeleteBookstores are disappearing at airports as well. It used to be so nice to be on my feet browsing them between flights, but now it is hard to find more than a few books/magazines in a news stand, much less an entire bookstore. The most extreme example I have seen is Incheon airport in Seoul where I seem to always have 6-8 hour layovers. There used to be a huge bookstore there as well as several well-stocked news stands with English language books. Last year, they had disappeared--everyone of of them. I searched the entire airport for any written material (books or magazines) and found only one small stall 3' wide in hallway that had a few magazines in Korean. No other material in print was to be found in that huge airport.
ReplyDeletePortland, Oregon has the best airport book stores I've seen. Wonderful
ReplyDeleteselections of high quality books. I hope they never disappear.