Foreshadowing the future?
Michael Haskins
I was thinking of writing a more upbeat piece when I received this email and it filled me with sadness because I see it, sadly, as the future. My book, Free Range Institution, comes out in February and I was looking forward to signing at the Los Angeles The Mystery Bookstore. I signed my first book, Chasin' the Wind, at the store in 2008.
More important, when I joined Mystery Writers of America in the late '70s, the store was located on Beverly Blvd., in Beverly Hills and local mystery writers were always hanging out there. In March the store held a gathering thought brought California mystery writers from around the state to meet fans, BS about writing and life, and a novice like myself felt welcome.
Sometime after I moved to Key West, the store changed hands and moved to Westwood, right outside UCLA. That might have been its doom. When my twin daughters, Seanan and Chela, were kids, we would spend the summer traveling with our book bags. They read The Baby Sitters Club and when they were off to college, it was Sue Grafton's alphabet mystery series.
College changed their reading habits. Textbooks took the place of fiction. Today, they are married, with children of their own and their days are filled with work and family and very little reading. They want to and they read me (thank God someone does) but not much else fiction wise.
I think the future for reading fiction is looking up, but it's not book buying, it's e-Books on electronic readers like Kindle. My vast library of first edition, which I've rebuilt since loosing everything in 1998 in Hurricane Georges, will probably go to a Good Will store. I have collected books since my high school days, eventually turning to first editions and many of them signed, thinking of them as an investment in the future for my children and grandchildren.
Libraries will be museums, I fear, because there will be no reason for actual paper books or bookstores. Everything will be done via the internet, as Amazon is now. How does a small independent bookstore compete with Amazon? I try to buy books from stores I've signed in and often pay full price at stores in Florida, Houston, and Los Angeles – dealing with Bobby from The Mystery Bookstore for years.
Following is a copy of the email I received and I want to share it with you. If it doesn't sadden you a little . . . well, it should.
The Mystery Bookstore
January 11, 2011
We have very much enjoyed owning the Mystery Bookstore in Los Angeles.
We've appreciated your patronage, your company, and your support in the time that we've owned the store. Unfortunately, we, too, are going the way of too many independent bookstores. We simply cannot compete with the Amazons of the world and the impact of the economy. We love the bookstore and mysteries and the relationships we've formed with authors, publishers, agents, publicists, and our customers. But, we do have retirement to think about (not in the near future!), and family and, well, all of those things that require money. So, it is with considerable sadness that we announce that The Mystery Bookstore, Los Angeles, will–after many years (and as apparently the last-standing bookstore in Westwood, other than UCLA's student store)–be closing.
Our last day will be January 31, 2011. We plan to have a "goodbye" and "thanks for the memories" party that evening, starting at 6:00. We'd love to have you join us one last time. Meanwhile, we'll be doing the biggest sale in our bookstore's history–many books for $2.00, British and collectibles at 50% off, and new releases at 35% off (which puts us right up there in the company of the big discounters, who, ironically, are one of the reasons that we that cannot continue). We hope you'll come take advantage of this pricing. We have lots of wonderful books, and lots of collectibles.
We will miss the events, the author signings and launches, and the Festival of Books. But, we anticipate that the Mystery Bookstore will continue in a considerably more limited form–with recommendations, collectibles, and eBooks–on the Internet on our current website. We'll keep you posted on that front, and will hope that you will come visit us there. Meanwhile, we hope to see you all at our goodbye.
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