The last bastian of hope for the humble hardback...

Birthdays usually bring together friends for celebration and relaxation, perhaps some long lost mates and estranged partners in the most extreme circumstances, but there is another 'bringing together of people' that occurs around a birthday, the "Oh shit, it's tomorrow? But I've got em nowt! Oh bollocks..." In times of strife we pull together and frantically try and think what the most suitable gift would be, were money no object? That normally gives us at least an idea, from which we can rein in depending on budget or how much we actually like them. It is in this, our darkest hour, that we turn to the humble book for support.

The book, both hated and celebrated at once, forms the ideal gift because you will doubtless find something of relevance or interest, even if you don't know the recipient that well. Books are nice too, big colourful pictures, funny chapter titles, inappropriate quotes and endorsements - it's all there. And frankly, I enjoy any excuse to nose around an old bookshop for an hour or so. But I also like sitting down, perhaps with a cup'o tea and maybe a biscuit (who doesn't) - this is where technology has stolen a march on the bookshop, allowing you to trawl for hours through Amazon.

Can a bookshop recommend a range of books, so tenuously associated with your previous purchase history that you have to double-check and make sure you've actually logged into your own account? Well, no. It can't. Unless you loyally visit a schizophrenic purveyor of books.

Can a bookshop allow you to read endless customer reviews which reflect the opinions of the educated masses or the sarcastic nay-sayers? Well, maybe. If you're unlucky enough to have a fellow browser peer over your shoulder and offer their two cents, which is actually worth about 1 yen. Note, it is not discourteous to tell them which slot to stick their two cents in.

Can a bookshop lure you in with impossibly cheap unit prices then force you to pay 200% of that price for a carrier bag and someone to carry it home for you? No actually, they can't on this one.

I think the biggest problem for me though, and it is this problem I face now, is that I want to buy an art book for a good friend. I know the kind of paintings they will enjoy, and I've got a bit of art knowledge anyway, but I don't want to be pigeon-holed into buying one style or artist's work. I want to browse the shelves, gaze at the covers, and skim the blurbs. I want to thumb through the pages, feel the resistance they offer, how the light reflects off the ink and see if the writing inside is informative or sickness-inducing. All very important factors, and can Amazon do any of this? Nope. So I'm off to the bookshop in my lunchbreak.

And don't even get me started on eBooks...


Mikey