Can you imagine a world without bookstores? With the flat economy and proliferation of Kindles & Nooks, bookstores are disappearing at an alarming rate. Borders has gone bankrupt and I wouldn’t be all that surprised if Barnes & Noble followed suit. In fact, both of these giants closed within two weeks of each other on State St. in Santa Barbara recently. I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite ways to while away an hour or two is to hunker down with a cup of hot chocolate at my neighborhood bookstore with a stack of art books and magazines. I’ll often run into friends there and even booked a wedding client who was leafing through a bridal periodical at the next table. Which proves my point – a bookstore is so much more than just a place to buy books. In this ever increasing world of online everything, it’s a place to engage in some good old fashioned human interaction. It’s a place to browse the shelves and be inspired by volume after volume. Ordering on Amazon can’t take the place of being mesmerized by one gorgeous plate after another in an Irving Penn photo book or discovering a beautifully illustrated children’s book that you know some little person in your life will always cherish.
So, with that I implore you to visit your local bookstore (while you still can) and buy some books this weekend. Help me keep what bookstores remain, alive!