Goodbye, My Bookstores
I read a newspaper article yesterday about a bookstore that is closing. Another one. The article complained that no one reads anymore and that books are considered luxury articles unnecessary to every day life. And that the government doesn't care and does nothing to help independent bookstores because it simply doesn't want its citizens to think.
When I first arrived here, twenty-five years ago, internet shopping was still a thing of the future. I would make trips to Santiago and roam its bookstores, hoping to find something in English, buying in Spanish when there was nothing else. There were various bookstores I visited. Of all those I knew then, only four are still open. And two of those are closing before summer.
Santiago is a university town, but the crisis and demographics has cut back on the volume of student spending. Especially in textbooks. Now, few buy them. Most students try to find a volume and copy it. It's illegal, but copy stores will do it, and it's much cheaper than buying. In my daughter's Department of Philosophy, teachers have notes ready for the students to buy at the copy store. There are no textbooks. My daughter only occasionally buys reading books that are necessary for certain classes, such as Plato's Republic. And she tries to find those editions that are the cheapest possible. Like her, most university students. And so, bookstores lose their reason of being.
Few people read regularly once they leave school - less clients. Sales tax on books went up to twenty one percent. Books have become more expensive. People who are scrounging for ten euros to buy something for lunch are not going to spend twenty-five euros for a hardcover, or even twelve for a paperback. If they are readers, they will re-read what they have at home or choose from the paltry selection at the local library, which isn't very extensive to begin with. But they won't buy.
And bookstores will close in the old section of town, and the new. In the old section those bookstores will join other defunct stores that once served the dwellers of the neighborhood. In their stead tourist traps will open, with shiny little botafumeiros and statues of Saint James in the window, and t-shirts with witty sayings hanging in the doorway. Because the store owners now earn more money from tourists than from the neighbors. Signs of the times.
When I first arrived here, twenty-five years ago, internet shopping was still a thing of the future. I would make trips to Santiago and roam its bookstores, hoping to find something in English, buying in Spanish when there was nothing else. There were various bookstores I visited. Of all those I knew then, only four are still open. And two of those are closing before summer.
Santiago is a university town, but the crisis and demographics has cut back on the volume of student spending. Especially in textbooks. Now, few buy them. Most students try to find a volume and copy it. It's illegal, but copy stores will do it, and it's much cheaper than buying. In my daughter's Department of Philosophy, teachers have notes ready for the students to buy at the copy store. There are no textbooks. My daughter only occasionally buys reading books that are necessary for certain classes, such as Plato's Republic. And she tries to find those editions that are the cheapest possible. Like her, most university students. And so, bookstores lose their reason of being.
Few people read regularly once they leave school - less clients. Sales tax on books went up to twenty one percent. Books have become more expensive. People who are scrounging for ten euros to buy something for lunch are not going to spend twenty-five euros for a hardcover, or even twelve for a paperback. If they are readers, they will re-read what they have at home or choose from the paltry selection at the local library, which isn't very extensive to begin with. But they won't buy.
And bookstores will close in the old section of town, and the new. In the old section those bookstores will join other defunct stores that once served the dwellers of the neighborhood. In their stead tourist traps will open, with shiny little botafumeiros and statues of Saint James in the window, and t-shirts with witty sayings hanging in the doorway. Because the store owners now earn more money from tourists than from the neighbors. Signs of the times.
Comments
Post a Comment