There are real signs of recession starting to bite, this is most evident in that lots ordinary people are selling their paperback fiction to raise money. This is a bit of a two edged sword really, with supply exceeding demand I have reduced book prices considerably and still we have a better range of fiction than I ever remember. Sales are up for the simple economics of reading are the average price of a new paperback seems to be about £6 to £8, although when you go into a big chain bookshop, it looks as though from the gaudy signs everything is on special offer, somehow it usually transpires that the book I want isn’t, so average read costs about £7. Here in the secondhand bookshop most of the paperbacks are priced between £2 and £3 and in many cases we will take them back in part exchange against the next one bought, bringing the cost of an average read down to below £2. Although for the really hard up we have a sale section where all the paperbacks are 5p and all the hardbacks 10p interestingly some people seem quite sheepish about spending such a small amount.There are of course the libraries, but with the high cost of library fines unless you are very efficient this is the read cost equivalent to roulette.
The picture is Ramsgate in 1817
Michael, I was horrified to go into Margate Library today and see TDC's Gateway in operation. For KCC to call this once useful library a library still, is an effront. Where the heck are the books? It would be better to move the 'gateway' to the above Post Office offices that are up for 'sale'or close the Libray down.
ReplyDeleteBertie as a bookseller I see my primary function as selling books, I’ve been at it for a very long time, and in the current economic climate that specifically has related to small shops in this country for the last fey years, I wouldn’t still be in business if I hadn’t got a fair idea of what I am doing.
ReplyDeleteI have had a few forays into stocking items that are not books in the various bookshops I have worked in, frankly readers neither want or expect this, so here my stock consists of about 30,000 books and a very few cards and pictures of old Thanet mostly to decorate those parts of the shop where one can’t put book shelving.
I find apart from a lot of quality books it’s essential to have a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere.
The library, being publicly funded has no incentive to provide the service to the readers in Margate that they want, and quite frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if at the bottom of this is lobbying carried out on behalf of the big chain book retailers.
I am coming to the conclusion that most of the things that are making our society so very unpleasant at the moment benefit the large companies and the very rich. Margate library unpleasant, Margate town centre unpleasant and intimidating ask yourself who benefits.