Yesterday I talked about Iraq and the United States; tomorrow I will talk about Israel and Palestinians; but today I will write about New York. I live in a neighborhood on the Upper West side right next to the Lincoln Center. This week there was an opera broadcast on a big screen outside, free for all. I went and saw it this Monday right after I passed by the traditional Barnes & Noble, the gigantic bookstore on Broadway and 66th Street.
They did not have the book that I wanted, but as usual I immediately thought about getting the virtual edition on my Kindle or iPad or even ordering the paper version on the Internet. Half of the American population has the same habit when it comes to buying books, not to mention that the majority opts to purchase books in the big stands at super centers like Wal-Mart.
The next day I grabbed the print version of the New York Times, even though I usually spend all day on the New York Times app on my iPad. One of the articles I read mentioned the same Barnes & Noble at the Lincoln Center. The article reported that the bookstore was closing.
The same bookstore where residents of the Upper West Side, including me, would visit regularly for a cup of coffee and to check the latest editions — that same store won’t exist anymore.
Jardins just wouldn’t be the same without the cultural library, or the Pinheiros without the Fnac.* We don’t have record stores anymore and soon we won’t even have bookstores. I couldn’t help to have a flashback from the late ‘90s movie “You’ve Got Mail” with the beautiful Meg Ryan, where she plays a small bookstore owner in the Upper West Side. In the movie she has to compete with the larger bookstore chain Barnes & Noble. Less than a decade later, not even the big stores are surviving.
The demise of printed books will not go as quickly. But bookstores will eventually look more like Amazon than Barnes & Noble. There are still little bookstores in New York, but not too long ago my favorite biography book store in the West Village closed down. The little store will be replaced by Marc Jacobs, which already has stores at the corners of the same street.
The Kindle, iPad and Nook (made by Barnes & Noble) have a special advantage especially to students. Just like a former college friend said asked me once: Can you imagine having all of our college books on a Kindle? I know that here in the U.S. this is going to happen soon.
Things happen so fast that I was astonished to learn that the new college generation does not send emails. It takes too long; they prefer text messages, WhatsApp and bbm. This is quite an advance in relation to the past generation that left behind voice mails on mobile phones. None of this new group obviously enjoys reading the news and books on paper. Ironically, the end of Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center takes place at the same time as the Jornal do Brazil** in Rio De Janeiro sells its last printed copy.
Translator’s Note: *Jardins and Pinheiros are very wealthy neighborhoods in Sao Paulo. Fnac is a books/eletronics store in Sao Paulo.
**Jornal do Brazil is a popular newspaper in Brazil.
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