Sure, the convenience of internet access today allows us to get any book we need with just a few clicks, either digitally or delivered to our door - but when you finally hear about the last independently run Bronx bookstore closing in 2011 and the last B&N closing in October of 2014, the consequences of this shift to the internet brings itself into perspective.
I heard about this debacle on the Bronx 12 local news last year while the lease disputes were underway, but today the thought crossed my mind, kinda out of the blue while working in the library, as to what life would be like without access to books....
Again, with the continuous rise of the internet, access to books isn't entirely unavailable, but thinking about the issue, I become curious about the difference between bookstores as places and as websites. What kind of differences were lost with the closing of the last bookstore that can't be found online?
First, I wonder if shift away from books and towards screens is a bad shift at all...
1. If the shift can be seen environmentally friendly, we can imagine that a lesser book demand correlates to less paper demand = less cut trees = less shipment... This could potentially alleviate deforestation and the emissions produced by shipping of lumber and printed books.
2. If the internet provides more access to a wider range of books than a bookstore does, then cutting right to the chase - the elimination of bookstores in an area connects humans directly to that wider range of book access.
But I immediately think about the in-quantifiable value to be found browsing a book store.
The assortment of books and colorful cover art create an extremely welcoming environment not to be matched online. The people there share your interest in books, and will often point you in the direction of a good one.
And hold on, just because you can get more access online, does that automatically mean we should eliminate bookstores as places? With the elimination of bookstores as places, we lose that interaction, the human contact that is equally absent online.
What does it mean for a community - especially The Bronx - to lose its last point of access to bookstores as places, not just for the books they supply, but for the interactions they foster?
~ For all the other Fordham students, my neighbors in The Bronx, and fellow dwellers of bookstores world-wide - what would a community without a bookstore mean to you?
Here's a link to the NY Daily News article from late last year about the closing of the Bronx's last bookstore.
