Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Hardbound; Hard-Pressed

"The Mann Press for Rotary Offset" (from: Retro Graphic Design)





















"There’s been a great deal of conjecture lately about the future of the bookstore: What will happen to the B&N [Barnes & Noble] stores (especially if they do plan to reduce the number of stores)? What about independent bookstores? Will Amazon crush bricks-and-mortar stores out of existence? Oh, lordy, will there even be such a thing as a bookstore!?!?
     …Is there, in fact, a place for bookstores in our future?
     What does the business model for that bookstore look like?
     On the first question, I think the answer is yes. Here’s my bias — I LOVE bookstores. In my youth, I would bring my lunch and spend the day in multi-level used bookstores on Fourth Avenue in Manhattan (which was also the home of hot metal typesetters, printers and book binders, by the way). I prefer independent and used stores to B&N, but these days you take what you can get.
     Part of me wants to suggest that we take the emotional hot button of the 'nobility' of the bookstore (particularly the local independent variety) out of the discussion and just talk cold/hard facts. But I don’t think we can."
— Michael Weinstein, Book Business
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