Bookstore on My Mind. | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Bookstore on My Mind.

BusyMom

Medalist
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
My town is really unusual in that all the chain bookstores went out of business (we had a Borders) but we still have a delightful mom-and-pop bookstore that has continued to grow and thrive. My newspaper actually has a cool partnership where we have the owner and her staff write book reviews for our weekly entertainment magazine.
That's a luxury I don't have. You're so lucky. It is my ideal kind of town. 24-hours services and deliveries McDonald's, Burger King, supermarket and 7-Eleven are my luxury. :slink: For the past days, everything shut down at 10pm due to the coup making me realize how much we rely on these modern services and not being well-prepared. :cry:

Anyway, I saw the TV program about the bookstore in Taipei called "Eslite. Very big with restaurant and café. And, of course, opens 24-hours. I looked up their website but it is in Chinese so I put the Wiki page instead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eslite_Bookstore
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Oh, my goodness, that's right--you're in Thailand. I hope things go well and that you and your loved ones are safe and able to conduct life peacefully. I understand being used to having services and conveniences and then suddenly not having them--when we had the superstorm, we lost power and heat and even water for days. Things worked out eventually, but life was immeasurably harder for a long while. I hope things work out well for you all.

Thanks for the link to the Taipei store. Imagine a bookstore that's open 24 hours!
 

BusyMom

Medalist
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
Thank you for your concern. Military Coup in Thailand is a bit different. In the past few years we have had some protests, martial laws, and military coups every once in a while. Not really interfere with people life in general. If you ignore the fact about the tank passing by your street nothing changed much. We getting the chances to buy soldiers drinking water and lunch boxes to show our gratitude for their services is a big plus.
 

Sam-Skwantch

“I solemnly swear I’m up to no good”
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Country
United-States
Check this out- Kansas City Public Library. Not a bookstore but it's so cool! https://twitter.com/planetepics/status/470237813267767296/photo/1

That is by definition a "Book" store.

At the risk of running off topic check out this building! http://timbuktu.me/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/longaberger-home-office-front_tulips_300-dpi.jpg My parents went there and sent me a postcard a few years back. My dad loved those Longaberger baskets.

To go back on topic I found this the other day and forgot to post it.

http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/08/28/10-inspiring-bookshops-around-the-world/
 

Alba

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 26, 2014
Do you remember the time when we spent endless hours in the charming bookstore?

Since on-line stores give you more flexible and more convenient purchases, we seem to find ourselves less and less time to visit the old fashion bookstore. Like in the movie "You've Got Mail.", little book shops has been wiped out by the mega chain stores. I miss the unique smell of the old papers and resourceful clerks.

I love the smell of the books, especially the old ones. I continue to go and buy books, new and used every month.
Two from 3 books per month is my ration. :yay:

My boyfriend bought me the Kindle this year as a present for my birthday. It's a very nice thing and certainly very usuful when you're travelling.
I'm using it for big volumes and as I said when I'm travelling.
 

louisa05

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
I love the smell of the books, especially the old ones. I continue to go and buy books, new and used every month.
Two from 3 books per month is my ration. :yay:

My boyfriend bought me the Kindle this year as a present for my birthday. It's a very nice thing and certainly very usuful when you're travelling.
I'm using it for big volumes and as I said when I'm travelling.

I have become a Kindle apologist since my husband got me one a few years ago. Very simply, if you do not have perfect vision or vision correctable to perfect, eReaders can be your best friend. And I am not talking about you need glasses or contacts or had to have LASIK (if LASIK worked for you, you were not in my shoes and certainly not in my mother's shoes), I'm talking about those among us who have blank or dark spots, or foggy spots, or severe light sensitivity, or whose vision cannot be completely corrected with glasses or contacts, or have a weak retina that does not allow you to properly focus all the time or for long periods...By the time I got the Kindle, I could read from a page for maybe an hour before I had symptoms of eye strain and had to stop. With it, I can adjust fonts, size and spacing and read all day when I want to.

When friends find out I read almost exclusively on a Kindle, I hear this, always, "But I thought you were a book lover". I am. But if I want to read them regularly, I need them in a format that is easier for my eyes. If I continue to exclusively buy print books, they end up being pretty things sitting in my house. I still buy one occasionally, usually non-fiction things with pictures and such that are better to have in that form. But it takes a long while to actually read those.

So don't curse the eReader all the time. That technology is allowing a lot of people to continue to read. Including me and my mother.
 

Alba

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 26, 2014
When friends find out I read almost exclusively on a Kindle, I hear this, always, "But I thought you were a book lover". I am. But if I want to read them regularly, I need them in a format that is easier for my eyes. If I continue to exclusively buy print books, they end up being pretty things sitting in my house. I still buy one occasionally, usually non-fiction things with pictures and such that are better to have in that form. But it takes a long while to actually read those.

So don't curse the eReader all the time. That technology is allowing a lot of people to continue to read. Including me and my mother.

Not at all. I love Kindle, I think it's a great thing and not only for people with the problem that you mentioned but for everybody.
I was very sceptic about it because I love books, but as I said for me is very usuful when I travel or read big volumes. I read when I'm in bed a lot so big books are difficult to handle.
Furthermore you can put a lot of books in it. My house is full of books, even in kitchen and the bedroom. I don't know where to put them. :biggrin:
It's just that I still do prefer to buy books. I would never want books, in printing, to die. :no:
Furthermore it happened once that my kindle was blocked, stucked. I don't know what happened but for about 5 minutes I was trying to change the page, to continue reading, and I couldn't. I had to switch it off and restart again but with difficulty.
You can't imagine how frustrated I felt. It was a strange feeling and I said to myself, you can always rely on the book. :laugh:

Kindle is gorgeous though. :thumbsup:
 

louisa05

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Not at all. I love Kindle, I think it's a great thing and not only for people with the problem that you mentioned but for everybody.
I was very sceptic about it because I love books, but as I said for me is very usuful when I travel or read big volumes. I read when I'm in bed a lot so big books are difficult to handle.
Furthermore you can put a lot of books in it. My house is full of books, even in kitchen and the bedroom. I don't know where to put them. :biggrin:
It's just that I still do prefer to buy books. I would never want books, in printing, to die. :no:
Furthermore it happened once that my kindle was blocked, stucked. I don't know what happened but for about 5 minutes I was trying to change the page, to continue reading, and I couldn't. I had to switch it off and restart again but with difficulty.
You can't imagine how frustrated I felt. It was a strange feeling and I said to myself, you can always rely on the book. :laugh:

Kindle is gorgeous though. :thumbsup:

My mother can't read from a book at all anymore. Not even large print. So, no, the bolded is not true for everyone. I love books, too. I really do. I was the eReader skeptic saying all this stuff. Then my eyes betrayed me. I would have probably had to drop out of grad school without it. And I get really tired of the whole "but, books..." thing which is really negative about technology that is truly helping people. Everyone forgets that it is serving needs they have never thought about. And those of us with vision difficulties that fall in the middle of "get LASIK" and completely blind are a completely under served population that most people do not realize even exist.
 

Alba

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 26, 2014
My mother can't read from a book at all anymore. Not even large print. So, no, the bolded is not true for everyone. I love books, too. I really do. I was the eReader skeptic saying all this stuff. Then my eyes betrayed me. I would have probably had to drop out of grad school without it. And I get really tired of the whole "but, books..." thing which is really negative about technology that is truly helping people. Everyone forgets that it is serving needs they have never thought about. And those of us with vision difficulties that fall in the middle of "get LASIK" and completely blind are a completely under served population that most people do not realize even exist.

I'm sorry but I was speaking for myself not for the whole humanity louisa. Don't take it personally.
As I said, I have the Kindle, I make use of it and I like it.
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
I use a magnifying glass, and am so used to doing so, that I don't like large print books - I'm so used to focusing on that little circle that I don't like not having to use it; I end up reading a bit with, and a bit without, and being annoyed however I do.

Note: I'm a die-hard traditionalist and read print books ONLY. :)

Note2: I've got around 10% of normal eyesight - with glasses - on my right good eye; the left one is worse. Just in case anyone is curious. :)
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I use a magnifying glass, and am so used to doing so, that I don't like large print books - I'm so used to focusing on that little circle that I don't like not having to use it; I end up reading a bit with, and a bit without, and being annoyed however I do.

Note: I'm a die-hard traditionalist and read print books ONLY. :)

Note2: I've got around 10% of normal eyesight - with glasses - on my right good eye; the left one is worse. Just in case anyone is curious. :)

LRK, you are a truly determined bookworm! I'm glad you've found a way to surmount your challenge.
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
LRK, you are a truly determined bookworm! I'm glad you've found a way to surmount your challenge.

Thank you, Olympia. :) One of the most cherished compliments of my life was when an optician (who worked with visually disabled people like me) told me he'd never seen anyone with my level of eyesight read so quickly - I was so pleased! Everyone is good at something - even me. :) And goodness knows this is somthing I should be good at, the amount of time I've spent on it - and, as they say, practice makes perfect. :)
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
LRK, the other thing you get to enjoy with real books is their feel, the texture of the pages and the covers, as well as the aroma of fresh ink versus the mustiness of old books. None of these can be reproduced on a Kindle, though they have other advantages! One company here that used to publish a paperback line of fantasy literature had a particular scent of ink, which I would always want to smell as I opened the book for the first time.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Real books can last for centuries.

Unfortunately, computer documents, including virtual books, are unlikely to last more than 10 or 20 years. The hardware improves. That drives software to become less and less backward compatible. My Office 2003 documents already yield warnings from Office 2010 that editing them might damage my computer.
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
It's all so very... transient, isn't it? I'm thinking of all those old letter collections - and we with our emails... (I actually do print out some of my correspondence - not that I know who will care, but for myself if nothing else.) I just wonder what will remain of us, and of our conversations, and the fun we have had here on GS for instance, when we're gone? Will it all just... disappear?
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
It's a sobering thought. I have family letters and documents that go back to the early 1800's. In my mother's family, there are two diaries that cover the lives of an average farm family in the 1600's from this part of Connecticut. These diaries are in the state archives now, but they have been published in hard copy, and are on the internet as well.

Our lives in this century leave almost as few permanent traces as if we were illiterate hunter-gatherers; indeed less, since most of us produce nothing for ourselves. We make no spear points or hand axes or cave paintings. The artifacts of our lives here in the US are now made in Asia. Most of us will not even leave our bones, if we choose to be cremated.

Meanwhile, nearly everything that documents my existence is virtual-emails, digital photos, and so forth. I have started to send occasional real letters to my grandkids, because I would like them to have some personal communications from me that they could save, if that were something they wanted to do. Good times to write a real letter are when we are travelling or when the grandkids are at summer camp.

"All we are is dust in the wind," or 0's and 1's in cyberspace.
 
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Joined
Aug 16, 2009
That's true, Doris. Funny that we hear that all our plastic trash will never break down, whereas the handprints of our lives might all but vanish.

I have a copy of my grandfather's citizenship papers from early in the last century, and holding it is like standing in a time machine. His wife and all the children born up to that time, including Mom, are listed. Nothing replaces the feel of a real artifact, though of course online resources make many documents more widely accessible.
 

Sam-Skwantch

“I solemnly swear I’m up to no good”
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Country
United-States
When I first starting reading outside of just school assignments I would immediately give anything I finished to someone I thought would enjoy it. The notion was one of spreading the joy of reading and finding someone to swap interpretations with. Now I'm just refusing to even lend books out if I'm at all skeptical of ever getting it back :) I've become obsessed with growing my collection. The irony is I'm guilty of keeping others books they lent me so I guess it takes one to know one :laugh:

I've already purchased another copy of Watership Down to give away once I'm done. I still want to share the books but not at the expense of my library :slink:
 
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