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The Slow Death of Bookstores


DrGravitas
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Milling around the shops waiting for dinner and take a look in the only bookstore in shopping center. It's no 3rd rate place; a well decorated 2-story place fitting to the surrounding stores. But what do I find inside?

Mountains of trash-tier books, rows of blah Sci-fi, cheezy fiction, and dine novels. Massive sections dedicated to magazines, multimedia, toys, and board games.  An ice creamery. Pop music wafts through the air.

I find an computer section composed entirely of "For Dummies" and a few video game strategy guides mixed in (in fairness, a few interesting video game art books were among them.) Tucked away in the back is 3 short-shelves of very old science books sprinkled with obvious junk "science" mixed in. Along side it sits nature section with no books on foxes (the horror!) The business section reeks of "get rich quick". All of them combined are smaller than the manga/comics section.

Lastly, I find an anemic art section dominated by same-y coloring books. A single shelf of art appreciation including the likes of "The Big Book of Breasts". A paltry selection of entry-level art instruction books with two different books on drawing in the "furry" style:

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I'm just happy they still exist at this point, so I guess I don't complain even though I hardly shop at them anymore. I don't read ebooks at all, but I've also been mostly sticking to review copies of books (which I read on my PC (my poor, poor eyes)) or audiobooks.

So I'm part of the problem in some capacity.

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Bookstores smell nice. Well, at least Barnes and Noble does. I only ever go into it when I want to go through it to that side of the mall it's attached to.

It also has a Starbucks in it. They have yummy stuffs there.

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12 minutes ago, Sidewalk Surfboard said:

I love book stores. I get nostalgia from them. I used to Borders and buy manga when I was 10. I miss the smell of brand new manga.

Now all Manga smells of xenophobia and creepy 40 year olds. 

 

22 minutes ago, Kinare said:

Bookstores smell nice. Well, at least Barnes and Noble does. I only ever go into it when I want to go through it to that side of the mall it's attached to.

It also has a Starbucks in it. They have yummy stuffs there.

Same with Indigo, smells wonderful! 

I had no idea they sold furry books at stores..... Slightly tempted to buy that Art of Drawing Furries book now.

The coloring book though... How many kids who are young enough to buy coloring books are furries?!

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8 minutes ago, Feelwell the Rabbit said:

The coloring book though... How many kids who are young enough to buy coloring books are furries?!

Actually, there's a fair amount of adults who are into coloring books.

I know one irl.

We went to the store and she bought a Scooby-Doo book for herself.

She's 46 years old.

Edited by Endless/Nameless
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*nods*

Bookstores are a dying breed. I used to work at Barnes & Noble. In the music section, no less. It's almost enough to make me feel old.

Michaels has a similar selection of furry art books. When did this happen? We used to be more underground. Not that I mind, really. Seeing that sort of thing in the public sphere gives me warm fuzzies, even if it just scratches the surface.

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15 minutes ago, Endless/Nameless said:

Actually, there's a fair amount of adults who are into coloring books.

I know one irl.

We went to the store and she bought a Scooby-Doo book for herself.

She's 46 years old.

Yeah if you go into your local supermarket or CVS you'll probably be able to spot a few 'adult' coloring books, since they're actually pretty popular now.

Crayola even has lines of colored pencils and marketing displays explicitly targeted at adults who like coloring books now.

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22 minutes ago, Endless/Nameless said:

Actually, there's a fair amount of adults who are into coloring books.

I know one irl.

We went to the store and she bought a Scooby-Doo book for herself.

She's 46 years old.

Coloring is a fairly relaxing activity. I'm not surprised.

I've actually considered buying one of those super intricate coloring books for adults, if they weren't so damn expensive.

Also I feel weird, because our Barnes gets pretty good business, and has quite a lot of shit in it.
Although they also sell like little anime and game figures too, like a mini-Hastings.

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7 hours ago, Sir Gibby said:

>christopher hart

pls no

>tfw buying Chris Hart drawing books at the school book fair

What a horrible time in my life that was! 

At least I'll never become so much of an artistic failure, that I'm forced to stoop so low as to start drawing furr...

oh

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How to save Bookstores:

1. Put Starbucks/Coffee shop next door.

 

Your bookstores are safe, but are now populated by hipsters.

 

 

 

Anyways, I don't know about the art sections in your stores, but at my local B&N they have a lovely arrangement of "The Art of" books for pretty reasonable prices.

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4 hours ago, Sarcastic Coffeecup said:

I feel fortunate in the sense I have no idea who Christopher Hart is.

He's an author of a big bunch of drawing books, but they're crap and give lots of horrible advice, skipping the useful fundamentals.

1 hour ago, Toshabi said:

Your bookstores are safe, but are now populated by hipsters.

just burn it to the ground senpai

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Book stores are lovely. I can easily spend hours in them.

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But you gotta go to the used book stores! There's so many treasures in them. Go without any particular book in mind and you can find so many good things. <3 Barnes and Nobles on the other hand has such a poor selection I can only stand going there if its for a new release and don't feel like waiting the two days for amazon prime delivery.

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