Per my social voting --> social reading post, I think the shift in digital reading can mean big things for our indie brick & mortar bookstores if they're hip to what's going on and can find inventive ways to engage hyperlocally in their communities to foster more reading. This seems to be a trend as others are writing about it in a way they weren't even a few months ago. Does that mean I'm on to something or...?:
- Is There Hope for Small Bookstores in a Digital Age? - a primer of sorts from USA Today
- Bookstores Now, More Than Ever - a more considered look at the matter from Kassia at Booksquare
- Books: Onward to the Digital Revolution -a look at John B. Thompson's Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century
that includes this money quote: "What if digital technology spawns a radically new mode of distribution with few of the present industry’s fixed costs, one that delivers content in both physical and e-book form directly to readers wherever they may be."
In other bookish news:
- More Bolano is coming soon. In serial form. In the Paris Review.
- Kindle's Collective Highlights can now be made public - I have oh so much to say on this as you might imagine from my previous Kindle Highlights ponderings, so I'll have my thoughts sorted on this soon.
- ...but not before I have my thoughts sorted on my died-before-it-got-going Roundtable on The Instructions. I'll start-off with a first post...tomorrow. Really. (For the four of you still waiting for the blessed day to come, I thank you immeasurably for your patience. I have my learned my lesson about planning Roundtables during the busiest work time of the year. But I got us to read it, right? That's certainly 70% of this particular battle, no?)
