The State Of The Bookshop

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well have read the short essay The Bookshop Strikes Back by Ann Patchett , bought as I explained yesterday in a bookshop near West Ham's old ground in Upton Park in which she explained how she set up a bookshop in Nashville.

Let me say from the outset that I have absolutely no idea about the state of the bookshop in America. But in terms of Britain I can't really say I was convinced by her optimistic tone.

Now bare in mind that I'm chatting about new books. If you're talking about preowned then the situation is slightly different.

The point is this. You don't judge the state of bookshops in Britain from the vantage point of places like London or Cardiff but in small towns like Bridgend or Porthcawl. So far, I can only see decline.

If you exclude supermarkets then in the Bridgend area there is, with the specialised exceptions of the Welsh language and Christian shops just two places that sell books to any significant degree. The first is W H Smith. It's branch in Ilford (now part of a shopping centre but then just a tiny store) was one of the first providers of my reading education. It was a British shop in the sense that it provided a refined service that you would automatically rely upon. Now though, it will sell anything it can in a manner of a desperate used car salesman .

Slowly but surely the number of books it sells has declined. Part of this is understandable given the advances of such things as DVDs but, as I've explained in an earlier post. Soon the basement floor of the Bridgend branch is going to be turned into the town post office. Consequently what was there will be moved to the ground floor with an obvious consequence that the number and range of books sold will be cut.

The other place is The Works in the Macarthur Glen outlet store. That was a place that used to sell discounted books only. No more. Now books jostles with stationary, sweets, gifts, calendars and games for your attention (As an aside all these non city versions of Monopoly, from The Simpsons through to Doctor Who. Apart from rabid fans are there people who actually think this is more preferable than the classic version?)

Porthcawl did have an independent bookshop but it closed down a few years ago to be replaced by a chemist. In a relatively small area it has three chemists but no bookshops.

The nearest independent bookshop is a small place in the nearby town of Cowbridge . Trouble is it's fifteen minutes roughly from where I live and am not travelling there on the off chance there's a book I might like to buy. (It also incidentally has competition from - when it's opened,another story- a second hand bookshop that sells vintage Penguin paperbacks which of course I collect).

The nearest after that are in the big cities of Cardiff and Swansea about forty minutes away. But again you're not going to travel those distances when there's the comfort of the internet to fall back on.

The situation is exactly like the issue of bank branches. People might do e banking or use a cashpoint but they would want the branch to be there as well and miss it when the bank closes it down. Similarly people might order books online and via the e reader (guilty) but a bookshop would be appreciated as well. Whether it would be economically viable is of course the million dollar question.

So I wish I could be as optimistic as Ms Patchett about the state of the bookshop. But for the moment all I see is the dawning of a new grey.

The new book to read (bought online) is:

Alan Coren - The Cricklewood Tapestry

This is the third part of his humorous essays. Am looking forward to reading it and having my mood lightened by a master of his craft.

Until the next time.