My now-delayed reaction to the #amazonfail flap discussed in my last post is this: The kinds of people who would concern themselves with systemic censorship and the kinds of people who do the bulk of their book buying on Amazon would seem to share very little space in a Venn diagram, which is why I’m surprised that this is getting so much attention. That is to say, the act of shopping on amazon.com itself serves as a kind of self-selected censorship.
Let me explain: Find some time this week to go into an independent bookstore, chat with someone who works there for a while, and then let that person hand-sell you a book. I guarantee you that you’ll leave with a book better suited to your tastes than the ones you’d be presented by Amazon Recommends. Because, the thing is, indie bookstores know indie publishers, and indie publishers tend to publish books that are a little off the mainstream, quirky, deviant, experimental, and often quite different from anything that Random House is doing. And all of us are quirky, deviant, etc., in some ways. So while Big Generic Book may pass the time without offending your tastes, if you can find the right person to sell you the right Little Specific Book, chances are you’ll be a lot more satisfied.
And little and indie publishers rely on little and indie stores to do this. Because big and corporate stores won’t or can’t. Buying Tiny Indie Book from Amazon is good, but buying that same book from Awesome Indie Bookstore is better, because you’re not only supporting disparate literary voices, but you’re supporting the structure that props up those voices as well. What happens when places like Schwartz Bookshop in Milwaukee close up shop for good (for shame, Brew City, for shame) is that we lose one more outlet that devotes itself to good literature over the corporate business of books. And as these small stores fold all over the country, we’re left with ever-expanding conglomerates that cast an ever-shrinking net over the kinds of books that they’ll stock. Buying from Amazon instead of Main Street Books is self-censoring. When all we have left are Amazon and Barnes & Nobel, good luck finding any books with voices or ideologies that deviate from mainstream culture.
The Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter, Twilight – it’s great that people are reading, really — but should we all be reading the exact same book? I think that a populous with a diversity of knowledge and touch-points is a good thing. And that as the number of independently owned bookstores shrinks, we also lose visibility for less standard, less safe, less mainstream literature and ideas, and our culture becomes just that much more homogenized.
And, yeah, it sucks that Amazon was doing that bizzarro de-ranking bullshit, but when we effectively drive small bookstores — that serve as the obvious alternative to Amazon — out of business, can we really complain about Amazon’s business practices?
So here’s my suggestion: Find an IndieBound Bookstore near you. Go in. Buy some books. If you can’t find a bookstore near you, call one up — a lot of them will ship.
Also, if you’re in the Milwaukee area (as I know many of our readers are), you might want to check out A Broader Vocabulary. Milwaukee’s only feminist bookstore recently closed, and ABV is fighting to bring it back. Not sure what they’ve got coming up next, but they’re worth watching.
Anyway, forgive the soapbox, but this is kind of a big one for me. I get the convenience-factor of online shopping (believe me. I’m practically phone-phobic), but for this, the cost is just too high.
