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| Hearsay: |
The internet is killing “the browse”, a time-honoured tradition of vagrants and time-rich artsy-types alike. Without browsing how will we ever keep alive the more important tradition of the poetry-shelf-pick-up — the only time old ugly folk have a chance to impress the younguns?
Margaret Atwood, the Canadian author whose books include The Edible Woman, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Blind Assassin, which won the Booker Prize in 2000, said that the “serendipity” of discovering something in a bookshop has not been replicated online.
Kazuo Ishiguro, another Booker Prize winner, agrees. He told The Times yesterday that shopping for books on the internet was helpful for his work “but it’s not fun”.
Atwood told the London Book Fair last week: “You are not going to get the same experience on the net. Amazon is trying, by saying, ‘If you like this book you might like this other book’, but it’s often something quite offensive that they suggest.”
She added that the success of internet retailers meant that bookshops were missing out on “the sales that they wouldn’t expect to make, but make because somebody sees this beautiful cover and they pick it up and read the front flap.
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April 25th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Convenience is definitely one of the Internets’. Ishiguro though upset over being recommended Ishiguro tomes when buying Ishiguro study guides, whatever.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:53 am
Huh?
April 25th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Perhaps Mr. Hadd is having an “F. Scott Fitzgerald moment.”
April 26th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
The Internet is convenient. Kazuo Ishiguro, who purchases study guides to his own books, is then recommended his own books by Amazon, and is finally annoyed that Amazon is incapable of understanding that he is Kazuo Ishiguro and should not be recommended his own books, is like whatever. Whatever Mr the C!
April 27th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I buy plenty of books online, but it doesn’t take the place of a good book store browse. I can tell you that the local B&N does a booming business. The parking lot is always full and I usually meet the most interesting characters who want to strike up a conversation about a book they’d recommend.
April 27th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
I usually ignore the flashing signs, doohickeys, and recommendations when I use Amazon or Chapters online. My tastes are esoteric enough to throw off whatever software they’re using to predict titles, and I find that I’ll be exposed to more books outside of my usual areas of interest by visiting an independent bookstore. Often, my online book searches come from reading reviews or seeing titles at brick-and-mortar stores. I’ll usually buy from an independent store when possible… I use the web for price comparisons and research.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:55 am
>>The internet is killing “the browse” [...]
That idea is completely bonkers. I hate shopping in general and only browse in any store when I absolutely have time to kill, which is rare.
Conversely, I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of new artists/musicians/writers I’ve been exposed to (and spent money on) in the past year alone from online browsing. It’s a far richer experience because of all the “research” you can do, learning more about an author’s career and comparing the thoughts of many different people on their work.