Posted on 08/17/2010 2:01:07 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Are we about to see bookstores closing across the country? I suspect so.
Look at the depressing proxy battle for what remains of Barnes & Noble Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!bks/quotes/nls/bks (BKS 15.35, +0.29, +1.93%) , the world's largest chain of bookstores. You could hardly dominate an industry more than B&N has dominated the landscape of traditional bookstores. Yet its fortunes have fallen so far that management has hoisted the white flag and put it up for sale.
Barnes & Noble stock, which was flying high above $45 five years ago, has plummeted below $15. Wall Street's view of its prospects is so dim that not even the news of a bid battle has set it alight. The only bright spot: The company's e-book sales, which rocketed 51% last quarter.
(A vignette of a company in decline: Barnes & Noble's annual filing shows that management and staff owns 5.5 million stock options, granted to them in previous years to give them an incentive to work harder and smarter. The options have an average exercise price of $20.19 -- meaning most of them, if not all, are now seemingly worthless.)
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
They are also not vulnerable to EMP.
DH just got a Nook as well. He is very happy with it because he can put any pdf file on it and a bunch of other stuff as well as his own files (he worked at it for a few days). Kindle really ties you to only one format.
Here is the last quarter results...
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1451043&highlight=
The last time I was at a Barnes Noble was to purchase Sarah Palin’s book for my wife.
Seeing none on the shelves, I asked one of the female staffer who asked the manager why it was not on display.
Manager - “Why do you want ‘that’ book?”
Me - ?
Manager - “I think we may have some in the back”
Me - Could you check, the book just came out yesterday.
Manager - “Best that you come back later when we stock them”
Me - Went home and ordered it from Amazon.com
It wasn't for me. I love it.
Now, there's nothing that says we can't still buy real books -- I certainly will when I think it's something I want to keep. But the e-reader is great.
I particularly like it because of all the free books and PDF articles available on the web. I never liked reading them on the computer because you have to sit up. But with the Nook, I can download them and lay back and read as I would a paper book.
It's handy for traveling, too.
Oh good grief. You would think that they would want to sell anything in the store. They were probably liberals.
I don’t care what people buy, but to be honest, I rarely see liberal books being bought at Amazon. But I have scanned what seemed like thousands of Glenn Becks, Sarah Palins, and the FA Hayek one, the Road to Surfdome, which I am assuming is conservative because its always being ordered with the Glenn Beck book.
Our first house in Oklahoma had built-in bookshelves that took up almost a whole wall (w/fireplace in between). Our current home (built in ‘49—love the old houses from the 40s and 50s) has about half that space in the built-ins. It makes it hard for me to find room for all the books that keep following me home from the library’s used book sales!
If only my husband would get rid of those pesky engineering and math textbooks from his college days, I’d have another shelf and a half for me :) But since that engineering stuff puts a roof over my head and room for my books, I’ll keep quiet, LOL.
It still lacks the depth to tell us what’s really going on. If we’re going to say Amazon’s numbers show e-books killing the paper book market we need to know the numbers, not proportional numbers, the numbers. I don’t expect them to put that out thought, few companies do and Amazon is no exception.
No, that is true. I can’t even read it all because the font is too dang small. Since this is out for all the public to see they are going to be careful about what they say. As you said, they are no different than any other company. Heck, I work for them and I feel like I don’t know anything lol
I love used book stores. Sometimes I find a real gem. I loved when I found an old AKC book (I show dogs). I think it was published in about 1948 (I forget exactly) but it was such a cool find. I’m sure most people would have no interest, but to see the old dogs in the breed descriptions. Wonderful! You can’t get THAT on a kindle.
I was actually glad my husband got his kindle. He reads paperbacks at quite a clip and then I have to figure out what to do with them. :)
Yes, out second house had massive amounts of book shelves and I filled them all. Where we are now, I have had to box most of my books and store them in the closets. I hate it, because I want them where I can get them out and look at them. When we retire I will build lots of book shelves!
Ever try to find a specific marked passage in a 900-page book?
If an ebook is searchable for specific words and phrases I would accept it as an adjunct to the paper copy.
This is even useful for fiction which is bolstered with real-world facts.
So here are my questions :
Are ebooks "searchable?"
Are some yes and some no?
For me that is the pivotal question. If it does not make my long term enjoyment of a book I want to keep possible and less laborious I would embrace the concept as a supplement, not as a substitute for a "real" book.
additional:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2562658/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2571291/posts
If you have even modest computer skills, no one controls what’s on your e-book reader.
1984 was yanked from ALL kindles this past year.
Very upsetting to a lot of folks and certainly irritating for Amazon.
There wasn’t much that could be done - it was a legal matter.
Just sayin’.
What to do with used paperbooks? Hmmm?
Do what I did - join the paperback swap club!
If you backed your kindle book files up on your PC, they might be able to yank it off the Kindle, but you could put it right back. They couldn’t do it again until you turned on your WhisperNet, if at all.
Friends help you move - Good friends help you move books!
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