Pop-Culture is Killing Indie Bookstores

Published Jan 03 2007, 10:20 PM by Carly Carioli

Today's New York Times books section led with another piece about the slow death of indie book stores. This one, entitled "A Princeton Maverick Succumbs to a Cultural Shift," profiled Logan Fox. He's the owner of Micawber Books in Princeton, NJ, and even though he randomly looks like he's flirting with you in that posed photo, he's actually completely devastated that his store has been forced to shut itself down.

The majority of the article made us feel quite sad, which takes a lot considering the media has been crying over the chain bookstore takeover since forever. Especially the lede, in which Fox sincerely laments the fact that even his own employees would rather discuss Project Runway than their new favorite book:

"It kills me,” Mr. Fox, 53, said over coffee on Friday afternoon, shaking his head. “The amount of time spent discussing culturally iconic shows has superseded anything in the way of books that I can detect. Discussing books is very much one on one. It just hurts me.”

Despite being avid readers, we, too, are guilty of perpetuating this behavior.

While we don't normally expect the Gray Lady to make us reconsider our priorities, she's done it today. And now we're all cranky, wondering if our lives are meaningless.

So this the year we're finally going to read The Sound and the Fury and Trinity, even if it means missing our new favorite show that we haven't seen yet. Swear.

Filed Under: NYT, Publishing

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1 Comments

jo philistine said:

Books have become little more than cultural window dressing for the urban upwardly mobile who find that the ability to throw out a casual reference to Hardy or Shakespeare makes them a little more marketable among the class to which they aspire. Any actual appreciation or edification is pretty much irrelevant. Cliff Notes are really all you really need to read. If you entertain, a set of faux book spines in suitable psuedo gold-embossed leather covers for your bookshelf is the only other requirement. These are what the indie bookstores should start selling if they want to survive. Reading is so, like, 20th Century.

January 5, 2007 5:11 PM

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Pop-Culture is Killing Indie Bookstores

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