September 12, 2011

Anonymous asked: Hope your landlord raise your rent and see if you won't be asking people to sign your a petition to save your bookstore. Such arrogance.

This anonymous message is referring a tweet I twoted. I said, “I bet if every person who signed the Save St. Mark’s petition bought a book there, rent might be less of an issue.”

Maybe you read this post by Choire Sicha up on the Awl. It explains some of my cynicism, which you’ve misidentified as arrogance. A better explanation is this comment: “I LOVE St Marks. It’s a great place to wander and think about things, and I prefer to browse for books than search online for them. But I haven’t bought a book there in a while. I’m now reading most books on my iPod, because it is much easier to carry around. And e-books are (generally) cheaper.” This is not a joke. I hear things like this all the time. To my face, at the bookstore, from people who are otherwise sane and smart and nice.

I love St. Mark’s. I buy books there regularly—books that I could buy at the store I already work at. I just bought this there. I buy books there regularly because I’m glad that it exists and I want it to continue to exist.

Are there many serious, loyal & book-buying customers that’ve signed that petition? Yes. Do I hope the petition works? Of course. But it’s very easy to “love” a bookstore and sign a petition and feel swell and go buy on Amazon. Bookstores don’t run on love. Not even all-caps LOVE.

5:44pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZDtOFy9SHZCx
(Notes: 90)
  
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