Robin Agnew
This week our local paper, The Ann Arbor News, announced that it wil cease publication this July, going to a two day a week print edition, but focusing most of their energies online. They join the venerable Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, who are also reducing the number of print editions they publish (down to three days a week) and increasing their online presence.
Today I read an article about the fact that Braille is dying out - with new voice technology, fewer blind people know how to read Braille, saying it's too "difficult". It's been proven, however, that a familiarity with Braille increases the odds of both higher education and employment for the blind, as well as just plain literacy.
This week I listened to a piece on NPR about the Kindle. That piece was so depressing I had to turn off the radio. One of the things that bugs me about the Kindle is that many books can now be accessed for free - and so, like music, people are going to be expecting something for nothing.
These are all (it seems to me) giant changes and it speaks to the fact that our society, instead of becoming more literate and better educated is becoming less so, and the tools that enable this decline are so omnipresent that, like the frog in the water that slowly begins to boil, we haven't noticed until it's too late.
I've heard many of my fellow booksellers complain (lament?) that we are now dinosaurs - what will happen to the book business? News distribution? Reading? Education? If I knew the answer, of course, I'd be rich. What I do know is that reading is a quiet, thoughtful activity that takes some concentration and intellectual engagement. The necessary level of concentration is something our busy, noisy world offers very little of.
What's selling books these days are events and the fact that bookstores are a place for social interaction (our book club nights are usually the busiest of the month). Whatever gets people in the door and on their way with a book is a good thing. I do worry that my customer base is on the older side - with some exceptions.
And The Ann Arbor News? It may not have been the greatest paper on the planet, but it was the only paper (aside from the University of Michigan's Michigan Daily) that wrote about my hometown. Downtown, this week, seems like it's been in mourning for the News. Every customer has mentioned it - as one older lady with no computer lamented, "How will I read the obituaries?" It's not only the loss of a landmark business that's been around for more than 170 years and a loss of over 200 jobs, but it's also the loss of something more intangible. Something we should all be thinking about.
