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| Autumn 2000 issue | . | Book superstores | |
LINKS: ND Department of Film, Television and Theatre Books: |
Certainly the big chain bookstores want your business. But go
into Borders or Barnes & Noble. Grab a book. Sit in one of the comfy armchairs and
read. Nobody bothers you. Nobody suggests you might want to buy that book. And nobody
complains if you carry a cookbook into the on-site coffee shop and copy a recipe or two
into your own notebook. These are the big bad stores whose presence drove many small but well-loved Mom & Pop bookstores out of business — think of the movie You’ve Got Mail and of what happened to the lovely children’s bookstore run by Meg Ryan’s character. So why aren’t they pushing you to buy that book? Why do they offer story times for kids and pay talented local musicians to provide free entertainment? And why, oh why, do they look and feel more like a library than a Wal-Mart? That library feel is deliberate, says Jim Collins, associate professor of Film, Television and Theatre. Both Barnes & Noble and Borders feature rotundas, an architectural staple of libraries, he says, with B&N recreating the look of a late 19th century library and Borders designed like neoclassical civic buildings. "Of course, I love small funky bookstores," the Notre Dame professor says. But he also appreciates the fact that the superstores have created a literary scene, a place where, like a library, "reading becomes a kind of public leisure activity." Unlike Wal-Mart, he adds, the stores shy away from "brute consumerism." Okay, but what about that "store" part of bookstore? Aren’t these places in the business of selling things? Well, yes, says Collins, who asked that very question of managers of the book superstores. Their hope, he was told, is to get you to enter the store, even if it’s to use it as a library. "If we don’t get you one day, we’ll get you the next," one representative told him. Check out the lines at the cash register. Those aren’t library cards people are flashing. They’re credit cards. – Carol Schaal |
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