Support Barnes and Noble

I work next to a young guy. We get along pretty good and we talk about music, movies. Yesterday he was telling me that he was looking for a CD and sadly but predictably, he could not find it locally. He said that he would probably go on Amazon and get it. I asked why he didn't get it from Barnes and Noble.com. He looked puzzled and said that he was looking for a CD, not a book.

Yes, of course B&N.com carries music and movies, as well as books. They do not carry fertilizer or many of the other gazillion things that Amazon sells. Do we really need to buy our every household item online?

I was thinking of an answer as to why the guy should not shop at Amazon. I know what I can tell you guys. Reason number one is, Barnes and Noble still has retail stores to buy books locally. That doesn't mean a lot to certain readers and I cannot for the life of me comprehend it. Going to a bookstore or a library is like entering a church for me. It's a holy place. Being surrounded by thousands of physical books humbles me. These places are shrines.

And I still maintain that retail bookstores have more interesting things than many give them credit for having. No, they do not carry our beloved small press items, nor, really, should they. The small press produces specialty items for a tiny minority of the reading public. It makes no sense for stores like Barnes and Noble to carry small press items of every conceivable genre. They'd go out of business. And besides, if ALL you're interested in reading is small press horror, well, that's another sad story.

Unfortunately I could not tell my co-worker that he needs to support Barnes and Noble for the reason that they have brick and mortar bookstores, because he does not read. I'm pretty sure he's never read a book in his life. I gave him a copy of a Joe R. Lansdale book a year or so ago, in hopes that it would ignite an interest in reading in him, but he hasn't picked it up. Ever-escalating illiteracy is another reason why bookstores are having such a hard time.

So I told my young friend a different reason why we should choose other options than Amazon. I said that Amazon is getting too big and much too powerful. It isn't healthy in a free enterprise society for one corporation to monopolize everything. If Jeff Bezos and his backers had their way, they would control all music, all reading, and all movies.

I guess you can't blame them. Every business dreams of being the biggest in the world. But we do not have to contribute to it.

The guy got what I was saying. Being a young man who is trying to break into the music business, he understands that it is not good for one corporation to control the creative outlets of a society. He hasn't yet had his ideals burned away by laziness and cynicism.

The thing that Amazon offers that everyone loves is convenience. It's easy to use their website. Their search function is swift and efficient. They make it easy to do all of your shopping there. "Amazon.com and you're done". You're done all right. Soon all of your freedoms of choice will be gone.

I know a lot of you like electronic fiction. I don't, and I never will, but I can understand it, I guess. E-books are certainly convenient. I just wish more readers would choose the Nook over the Kindle. I've never used either, but I've heard various customers swear by one over the other.

Please help prevent one corporation from ruling the world in which we shop. Buy from Barnes and Noble when you can. Prices are generally pretty close between the two. And I know that B&N is a corporation too, but they seem to be more book-friendly, and they definitely support the local bookstore. And right now Barnes and Noble is the underdog. I've always been a guy who tries to help out the little guy.

I've often heard people say that they support both electronic and conventional book reading. That there should not be an either-or mentality about it. Well, buying from Barnes and Noble and reading on a Nook instead of a Kindle is a vote for that reality.

And in the meantime, get out and take a walk in your local bookstore, whether is be Barnes and Noble or some other retailer. Browse around and maybe take a chance on sometime completely new to you. Remember how fun that used to be?