Customer Reviews

Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A very well-done study of the book selling industry. So clever to use books as a focal point for a discussion of the complexities of buying and selling. Refreshingly free of jargon, though there are occasional traces of academic production (I intend to show in the next chapter ...). But this is minor given the generally clear-headed writing and thinking the author displays. Along with all the fascinating information about the development of book selling, as a vocation and as mere commodity pushing, she has included excellent reflections on the nature of the consumer and the consumer's choices to exhibit pure marketplace rationality vs. politically informed cultural activity.

Personally, I remain caught in the complexities of these choices: I bought this book on Amazon but feel it's critical to support independent bookstores (I do that too). I've just returned from a cross country trip and it's dreary out there in places that have no independents. Coincidentally they seem to be places that have no city centers, no architecture, no newspapers, few cultural events ..., nothing but cars and roads and big box stores.

Booklovers who wouldn't usually be inclined to read something about the bookselling industry will appreciate this detailed account of the business, particularly in light of the ongoing -- and often ruinous -- competition between independent bookstores, the mega-chains, the "big box" retailers and the online giants.

The author looks a bookselling and especially book buying from a very sophisticated standpoint taking many economic, social, and cultural factors into account. The idea that the book both is and isn't a commodity like any other is examined up down and sideways. One interesting point: the rise of giants Borders and Barnes and Noble has made buying a book an entertainment experience (e.g., people go on dates at Borders!).

Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling And The Culture Of Consumption holds the ability to appeal beyond the usual business reader, moving into the realm of book enthusiasts and booksellers alike. Book buyers often reject chain stores and consider any association between books and mass marketing unacceptable: so why is it that other chains have gained wide popularity while the chain bookstore's image struggles? Reluctant Capitalists examines this phenomenon, providing a history of the contested practice of selling books and surveying the rise of chains, mega-chains, and standing conflicts between chains and the small bookseller. Ideals and politics as well as book-buying habits and choices are analyzed in chapters which interview both book reader and major industry players.