B(u)y the Book

(Via The Guardian September 9, 2004) Critics said the web would destroy small booksellers, but the internet has actually given them a new lease of life.

It wasn't meant to be like this. The internet was supposed to bid farewell to the need for buying books in shops. When the dotcom bubble was at its peak, web gurus claimed sites such as Amazon would undercut and undermine traditional bookstores, and that ebooks would eventually do away with "dead tree" media altogether.

But what no one saw coming was that the internet would, in fact, provide a lifeline for possibly the least fashionable and most technologically backward part of the marketplace: old books.

Included links: Abebooks, Alibris, Barter Books, and Amazon

Posted by Tom on September 24, 2004 | TrackBack (0)