tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post5291580909943531800..comments2024-03-14T18:09:09.667-05:00Comments on Do Some Damage: Paradigm Shift at the Bookstore?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7119990365479009764.post-78313489709573271942012-04-21T22:03:31.671-05:002012-04-21T22:03:31.671-05:00I work in an independent bookstore, so of course I...I work in an independent bookstore, so of course I should be snarling at this post, but in fact, I hear a lot of resonances in it. We have new computers in our store, which in some ways are the bane of my existence, but on the other hand, they ARE new computers, and I found myself flipping over to the New York Review of Books on screen and finding that it was really somewhat easier to read than in it's beloved paper form. <br /><br />Another thing that happened recently was that I was dragooned into doing magazine strips. I don't usually have anything to do with this, so I was kind of unprepared for the task of taking off the covers of hundreds of magazines. We bemoan the loss of newspapers and magazines all the time, but I don't think it had ver struck me so viscerally that the whole system for distributing these things is so wasteful. Here I am in one store, stripping off the covers of ten Rolling Stones, ten Cosmopolitans, and so on. Of course, we recycle paper all the time. But what I was struck by was the fact that, regardless of content, these were beautiful, well crafted objects that were never going to be used by ANYONE. Made to be destroyed, their destruction is factored into the equation.<br /><br />I don't have answers on any of this stuff, but your post struck that kind of chord in me.seana grahamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03774794086733027289noreply@blogger.com