(Some of my own thoughts on printed books, bookshops and bookselling may just have crept in... a little...)
One of the little gems published especially for indie booksellers this Independent Booksellers Week 2012 is this short essay by Julian Barnes. It's a heartwarming piece from a world-renowned author about the indispensability of the physical book and how books have influenced his life: the nostalgia of inherited or prize-won volumes; the serendipity of discovery by browsing in bookshops, or the way in which he discovered books as a teenager by browsing his parents' and brother's bookshelves. I love these sentiments and agree wholeheartedly, as I do with Barnes's caveat that should the printed book survive and even flourish in the future then books and bookshops:
...'will have to earn their keep...
Books will have to become more desirable: not luxury goods, but
well-designed, attractive, making us want to pick them up, buy them,
give them as presents, keep them, think about rereading them, and
remember in later years that this was the edition in which we first
encountered what lay inside.' (pp.25-25).
This has never been more true. His own recent Man Booker Prize Winner 'The Sense of an Ending' was beautifully produced in hardback and the newly released paperback is also an attractive book with its' black edged pages. I expect sales of the paperback edition to flourish as well as the hardback did, and not just because of the content of the Booker Prize, but also because it is a physically attractive and pleasing book to pick up and read. So too, 'The Night Circus' by Erin Morgenstern; another well-made and attractively designed physical book which was set with a competitive recommended retail price and which sold well in hardback, with many customers commenting favourably about how lovely the book looked. As an indie bookseller I know I have to offer something over and above the online retail and the e-book experience so with both of these books I ensured a good stock of first edition copies and offered them on my shelves with dust jackets supplied by us in protective archival clear film - collectables of the future.
I am delighted that Julian Barnes retains an optimistic belief in the future of books and reading and hope very much that he is right. As a 30-something bookseller I have sampled e-readers, spend a large proportion of my working day online, use an iPad and so on. But, nothing will ever replace physical books for me. I can turn pages; feel the sentiment; remember people, places and things when I reach out for the books on my shelves; smell that glorious new book smell and that more time-worn old book smell; make notes easily; lend my favourite paperbacks to friends; I don't have to plug my books in to recharge them; they don't break; they are a pleasure to browse on my shelves; picture books given to children can be romped around with, loved, cuddled up with, dropped on the floor; I have books with treasured inscriptions from friends and family; more books with treasured signatures and inscriptions from authors; tatty books where just a glance takes me to where I was when I first encountered them; and ultimately when my bookshelves are positively groaning I can give away or sell on the books that no longer have meaning for me. Physical books open doors into my imagination, in a way that e-books have so far failed to do.
Julian Barnes's essay has also been published in the Guardian newspaper (Friday 29 June 2012) and is available to read online. If you would like a physical copy, it's available as a lovely little booklet with a striking cover design by Suzanne Dean, from independent bookshops only (it's not on Amazon - at least not at the moment). Priced £1.99. Proceeds from the sale of 'A Life with Books' will be donated to Freedom from Torture: The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.
