I’m quoted (wearing my IPN hat) in the Irish Times today about the Waterstone’s closures in Dublin. Real shame those stores are closing:
Eoin Purcell editor of Irish Publishing News says the Dublin closures are particularly unfortunate given the city’s new title of Unesco City of Literature. “I think there is great sense among readers, writers and publishers that we are losing something. It is a real shame. People will miss it. The Dawson Street branch is a fantastic store with enormous range. Some books there you wouldn’t find in most stores. It has an amazing military history section, for example. You can find these books online but going to the shelf and browsing and looking through books – there’s nothing like it.”
via Final chapter for much-loved Dublin bookstore – The Irish Times – Thu, Feb 03, 2011.
Eoin Purcell's Blog 
“You can find these books online but going to the shelf and browsing and looking through books – there’s nothing like it.”
Not wishing to be too disagreeable Eoin, but I would suggest that these associations between the emotional experience of browsing shelves and that of reading and holding and smelling paper books, are associations developed in a period of our lives when this was the only way of finding and reading our favourite books.
I started to buy books from Amazon about four or five years ago and found that that old browsing experience faded very fast, to be replaced by the even greater pleasure of browsing a wider variety online, with enhancements like recommendations and reviews. When I started to read books on my iPhone and iPad I then discovered that it is the writing, the story, the real content that matters more than anything. The move to eDevices will, I feel, reinforce that feeling even more for the wider population as time passes. It is the words themselves that carry the magic, not the media.
Not put out at all! In fact I agree.
Even though I feel that way, I still buy most of my books online! As ebooks grow as a percentage of my reading, I’d expect that to increase!
Eoin