MEDIUM RARE

As civilization advances, is the bookstore about to beat a hasty retreat? When was the last time you were in a bookstore? How much of the past did you miss there, standing among the loosely stacked shelves and remembering the not-so-long-ago? Bookstores have cut down their branches, like a tree losing its twigs to rot, or they are proudly, bravely hanging on to their purpose while reimaging themselves as department stores selling stationery, umbrellas, schoolbags, ballpoint pens and giftwrapping paper, ribbons, greeting cards, the ingredients for throwing a children’s party, and such. (In my favorite bookshop I could buy music sheets for piano written and arranged by our own composer-musicians.) Nothing wrong about today’s bookstores adding a new phase to their personality; the reader understands what I’m trying to say. How many bookstores have been forced to reduce the space for books to sell, such that more room is reserved for merchandise other than books? How many people bother to walk into a bookstore for the sheer pleasure of browsing, if not buying? A pocketbook now costs what it used to cost its hardbound edi-tion. Monthly magazines from abroad about gardening, decorating, weddings, psychology, travel, wining and dining have vanished. The world dedicated to the good life as a subject matter has gone to pot. And, yes, it looks as if postcards of our bejeweled islands have gone out of fashion, too, like the post office. Who misses the post office, anyway, when nobody writes letters anymore? Are kids in Grade 3 able to write in cursive? Didn’t a recent study show that a large percentage of graders cannot read, or do not understand what they read? If you cannot read, can you write? If you cannot read, that’s The End of book writing, publishing, sell-ing. Lucky for me, the younger generation of the family are pulling me up by the bootstraps to keep pace with Kindle, but I have to admit, I miss the tantalizing covers, the catchy blurbs and punchy five-word reviews splashed on book covers. So what, if that was the way of the last century: Would I have discovered Martha Grimes and Amor Towles if their magical writing had been available only on a screen rather than on a shelf?