Don't get me wrong; I do not hate Amazon (although I'll admit that, living in Seattle, knowing what I know, hearing what I've heard, I'm well on my way to hating them). I can
appreciate that they probably provide a great service to people
who live nowhere near a quality bookstore, or who can't get out
to browse at bookstores. They serve a purpose. And when I was
living in the cultural wasteland of Pennsauken, New Jersey, the
nearby Borders was an absolute refuge. But these behemoths do not
need our help. Urge your readers to find the books on your
reading list(s) at their local independent booksellers. There are also great online
resources out there which cull through the (mostly used) collections of various booksellers.
Here's some for starters (Bibliofind has since been acquired by Amazon. Sigh...):
Prefer new (or used) books? There's always the obvious:
Here's an online association of independent booksellers:
Other nifty options:
Thank you for your time, and I hope I'm not coming off like some annoying politically correct watchdog. This matter is just starting to really really have an impact. I've sat through the Starbucks takeovers and the Rite-Aid takeovers and the Home Depot takeovers, but I can't watch my favorite bookstores flounder and drown without taking a stand.
(The following is excerpted from The Seattle Times, 1/28/1999)
[When] it closes, Red & Black would follow the growing line of local independent bookstores - including Kay's Bookmarks in University Village, Rainy Day Books in Issaquah and downtown's Blackbird Books - that have succumbed to competition from superchain stores like Barnes & Noble and Borders, and, most recently, that current Wall Street darling, Amazon.com.
Even Elliott Bay Book Co., Seattle's largest independent and arguably the center of the city's literary life, hasn't been immune from the eroding sales and rumors of impending closure.
"I think these are dire times," said Michael Coy, the owner of M. Coy Books. "Somehow we thought we could avoid the fate of neighborhood pharmacies and hardware stores and mom-and-pop groceries, but it turns out that we may not. I don't know where things are headed, but it doesn't look good."
The national picture is no less bleak. Across the country, independents have been losing market share the past six years, said Len Vlahos, spokesman for the American Booksellers Association (ABA). During the first quarter of last year, the nation's four largest chains had 51.5 percent of the market share, a 3 percent increase over the same period the preceding year. With no corresponding increase in book sales, the gains come at the expense of the independents, Vlahos said.
At the moment, booksellers are abuzz about the recently announced closing of the last independent general bookstore in Tucson, Scott said. She added that independents already are largely gone in some parts of the country, including New York City.
(The following is excerpted from The Seattle Times, 2/09/99)
Access to poetry is as important to Adrienne Rich as the quality of the work. Rich feels that access is threatened by the encroachment of chain bookstores into towns with the independent booksellers. Traditionally, only independent bookstores have carried books by small presses that constitute the majority of published poetry in this country.
Rich has battled the proposed Borders bookstore in her own town of Capitola, Calif., which already has several independent bookstores. When a chain bookstore arrives, "The whole character of a community is at stake, along with what we get to read," Rich says.
"It's a tremendous assault on freedom of expression. . . . The chains tell the publishing industry what books will and will not be sold. . . . The unseen factor in it all is how it's having this effect on what publishers are publishing." Rich says she sees their influence already in the diminishing publication of poetry books - which are rarely easily marketed or profitable.
Rich's campaign against bookstore chains is yet another battle for a writer whose work represents a fierce union of art and politics. That union is essential to Rich's understanding of the role of the poet in society:
"To write the best poetry that he or she can. As poet, that is the role. As citizen, to participate in trying to salvage dignity. To speak out; not to be ignorant. To be informed. To think."