Amazon launches new bookstore in the US; does India need one too?

This week, I stepped into a bookstore after one whole year. I remember the last time vividly—it was just before a trip to Goa and I wanted something to read on the beach. I didn’t expect much to have changed in Crossword, one of the largest bookstore chains, in the country. But I noticed something interesting. [caption id=“attachment_286897” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”] A digital ebook reader on display at Crossroad, a brick and mortar bookstore.[/caption] The Amazon Kindle, the world’s most popular e-reader and digital ebook store, is changing the way we read. It’s turning large bookshelves into a compact, portable reading experience, and enhancing it with additions such as a dictionary. The Kindle Store further appends this with reviews and ratings from readers and friends—and not to mention, it’s cheaper to buy an ebook. So it’s a surprise that Amazon has launched a new physical bookstore in Seattle, USA. The bookstore will derive its inventory and look from the Kindle Store. Books will be accompanied by Amazon customer reviews, sorted by rating, and be kept face-out to mimic the online shopping experience.     The Kindle hasn’t become ubiquitous here in India, but urban readers are increasingly looking to get their hands on one. Digital reading, in general, is catching on more, what with tablets and large-screen mobile phones providing an easy way to download and read an ebook. So what does the good old bookstore still offer? A trip to a bookstore today I visited two bookstores – Crossword and Landmark – as well as a couple of small libraries. The most striking thing was that a bookstore really isn’t a bookstore any more – only 50 percent of these chains were stocking books. The rest of the space was toys, stationery, merchandise, chocolates, and a whole host of other things. It’s difficult to find the old-world charm of a bookstore in retail giants. If you’re expecting an environment of readers and curious minds, a few small book stores might give you that, but never the large chains. “I only ever visit authentic stores. Sadly, there aren’t many left in Bangalore. Crossword and the like have only trendy or bestseller collections and rarely have anything for more eclectic tastes,” says Abhimanyu Ghoshal, a writer and photographer in Bangalore, who recently rediscovered the bookstore. “Their atmosphere also sucks. I want to be surrounded by readers, and not hurried shoppers scavenging for last-minute gifts.” Not everyone is so put off by these though. It’s about your attitude, according to Anuya Jakatdar, founder of Books on Toast, a book donation drive in Mumbai. “A place that sells books is a place that sells books. You ignore everything else that’s irrelevant,” she says. The romance of smell and serendipity Where bookstores still outpace estores is in romance. The smell of books is indescribable, but irresistible to anyone who loves to read. It’s this smell that  drives Jakatdar to step into a bookstore whenever she’s around one and has the time. “It’s really awesome to see so many books stacked in one place, a reminder of the iceberg that’s under the surface I have barely scratched,” she says. “And yes, the new book smell. Nothing like it. Also I just pop in to see what’s new, or what’s bestselling.” Serendipity is Ghoshal’s favourite part. “Stores are more fun! The less organised, the better,” he says. “You might spot something a shelf away that you didn’t think you want (like a Michael Jackson biography). I adore the tactile experience of picking up a book, or of having a random sentence grab your attention.” “In a store, I can flit from one shelf and category to another and flip through whatever catches my eye. Online stores aren’t geared for serendipitous discoveries, especially for people with a wide range of interests. Each time I go back to my favourite physical stores, I find new books I’ve never heard of but am glad I found,” he adds. I have been buying books online for a long time now, but one aspect of the bookstore stood out: the size of books. It’s not something you can gauge easily when you’re buying online. But size plays a part in picking up titles in a bookstore. Seeing an oversized, thick book next to a mini makes a difference in which one I’ll reach for. Cover art, also, mattered more in physical bookstores. Great covers popped out; average ones were missed. A hardcover seemed more appealing than a paperback. The design of a book in general—art, size, paper quality, typography—played a bigger part in the bookstore than it ever has for me while shopping online. The practicality of e-books While bookstores offer romance, online stores and ebooks offer convenience. Your entire library can reside quite easily on one small Kindle or tablet, instead of requiring oodles of book shelf space. Last year, I got rid of most of my books and comics, collected and prized over many years, and switched to digital entirely. Letting go of the memories was hard, but I actually end up reading books and comics more regularly now. “The last time I bought a physical book from a store was at some airport or another, on pure impulse, and then immediately regretted it when I realized I had no space to store it in,” recalls Jakatdar. If a book is available on Kindle, she won’t buy the physical version. “If I hear about a book from a friend, blog, or podcast, I’ll look it up online, compare prices and buy it,” says Ghoshal. That said, he still prefers buying physical books”I like having something to display on my shelves at home, for others to browse and as conversation starters.” Still, Ghoshal likes how a physical bookstore can be powered by ebook sales data. He says Amazon’s bookstore idea is good because by using data from thousands of readers, they ensure inventory moves quickly and they can make discovery easier for books with small readership but very high ratings. The death of recommendations “Online, I only search for titles I know I want, buy them and leave. Features like ‘others who bought also liked’ and ‘related titles’ don’t work well to keep me hooked, even though it works for other product categories like gadgets and home furnishing,” says Ghoshal. Jakatdar echoes the sentiment. “I get my book recommendations from a few trusted sources and online reviews are stupid.“ Trusted sources are important. The saddest part of the bookstore experience, for me, was the lack of knowledgeable helpers in the middle of a store full of knowledge. The store clerks aren’t readers, or at least don’t seem like them. They’re sales people, trained to either look up the book you are asking for, or sell the books they’re mandated to. As a kid, I was often recommended books by my local librarian. I walked into a library this week, and met the man at the desk. The owners weren’t there, he said, and he couldn’t help me out. A group of students from the school next to the library walked in. One of them asked the clerk, “Do you have more Famous Five?” English was obviously not what she spoke regularly, but she was making an effort.  “Nahi!” came the terse denial in Marathi. She switched to the language he spoke in, and asked for other books like Famous Five.  The clerk at the library couldn’t help anyone out.