“The society which has abolished every kind of adventure makes its own abolition the only possible adventure.” Paris, May 1968


Monday 12 April 2010

In praise of independent bookshops.

As more people get their reading material either from Amazon or Waterstones, so the once thriving independent bookshops increasingly feel the pinch, and I think that's a shame. I recently wanted to get hold of a copy of Patrick Whitefield's The Living Landscape so called into my local small bookshop, placed an order and picked the book up 48 hours later. That's quicker than Amazon, only a couple of quid more and I got to deal with a real person who loves books rather than a computer screen.
When it comes to radical bookshops we Londoners are lucky to still have those perennial favourites Housemans and Freedom but they will only survive if we make the effort to use them. Talking of Freedom, I see that there is definitely going to be an Election Special edition of the paper. Why not pick up a bundle and try shifting them on polling day? It's what I intend doing.

1 comment:

milgram said...

And when you speak to them behind the counter at your local radical bookshop, they're much better at the "People who liked this book also liked..." thing than Amazon