Here's hoping that Tom Wayne's store Prospero's books goes bankrupt given that he's burning books in order to create a cheap publicity stunt to drum up business. If the guy was really concerned about declining literacy in the United States his efforts would be more productively placed pioneering digital paper in the metro rather than pushing dead trees on the public.
But getting people to read isn't what he's about . . . Clearly, his idiotic tactic is about creating some free news coverage so he can make a buck. Hopefully, people will see through the silly liberal coffee house chatter . . . Also, this temper tantrum on behalf of a small time bookseller makes me feel a hell of a lot better about buying all of my reading material from Barnes and Noble.
Then again, if the guy decided to destroy Ayn Rand and self-help books exclusively, the book burning would have my full support.
publicity stunt? far from it. nice to see you've missed the point COMPLETELY.
ReplyDeleteUh, if it wasn't a publicity stunt, then what was it? I guess I completely missed the point as well.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, just because people aren't buying books at Prospero's doesn't mean they aren't buying them. Hey Tom--Ever hear of Border's, Barnes and Noble, ABE Books, or Amazon.com? I hear those places have a few books.
ReplyDeletei'll point you to the national endowment of the arts study that clearly shows the state of readership in the country and where it is projected to go. readership is waaaaay down. (http://www.nea.gov/news/news04/ReadingAtRisk.html)
ReplyDeletethis is where the debate should be. google bookstore sales down and see what comes up.
barnes and noble, as well as other bookstores have also marked a loss in overall book sales. of course we know about abe. we use it all the time. when prospero's opened, there were a dozen locally owned booksellers open - only a few remain.
the sale of the books that are rescued is going to publish local authors.
Hey, how about this... Instead of being a snarky, ignorant bitch, and railing on this guy for doing something drastic to try to get people to "save" his books (hey, it worked)... You get off your lazy, pontificating ASS and go salvage a few books your goddamned self. That's what this "Silly coffeehourse liberal" is doing.
ReplyDeleteGuess who's actually going to make a difference? Here's a hint: It's not YOU.
Someone saying or doing something radical to make noise about his own domain to increase traffic? Tony would never do that, now would he?
ReplyDeleteYour whiny commentors crack me up! You can almost hear the indignant "hmph!" as they hit publish, then resume poring over the rest of your posts to see what else they can get self-righteous and oh so angry-angry about!
ReplyDeleteIf nothing else, it's quite entertaining and definitely makes me laugh!
Humor site, indeed ;-)
I have vivid flashbacks of pictures of Nazi's burning books to stop knowledge from being available. If he wanted to seriously help a declining reading rate, I can think of several ways to do it without destroying what should be cherished.
ReplyDeleteIn the age of digital, we must cherish the books we've got... hell- TOM: I'll take your books, I LOVE TO READ!!!!!!!
I hope this douche canoe burned a copy of Fahrenheit 451.
ReplyDelete/how did this mockery end up on Slashdot?
Book buying is actually not as down as people think. What's down is the number of people buying and reading books. Publishers and booksellers are still doing very good, but the population has expanded while the number of bookbuyers and readers has remained stagnant.
ReplyDeleteWhat irks me about Propsero's lame stunt is that it gives Kansas City indie books sellers a bad name. There are other indie bookstores in KC, including the one I help run, Crossroads Infoshop & Radical Bookstore at 3109 Troost.
I spent the weekend on a project to expand our bookstore. Tonight I've written a short piece about Prospero's stunt and our bookstore project: Bookstore burns books while anarchist bookstore expands a few miles away
Chuck0
Crossroads Infoshop & Radical Bookstore
Big ups to my niggas at Rainy Day Books, 2706 w 53rd street, fairway, ks.
ReplyDeleteWho ever bought a book from Prospero's anyway?
"Book buying is actually not as down as people think. What's down is the number of people buying and reading books."
ReplyDeleteUm, what?
"Book buying is actually not as down as people think. What's down is the number of people buying and reading books."
ReplyDeleteThe percentage of all Americans who buy books has gone down slightly as the population has grown larger. But the number of Americans who buy books is pretty much the same. I just found an op-ed at the Wall Street Journal about CD sales, which listed percentages of what people are doing with their entertainment dollar these days. People are spending more money on video games and the Internet. Magazines and newspapers have declined. Book buying is dead even.
Supergirlest-
ReplyDeleteA dozen bookstores in KC have closed? But in that time so did two of its major record stores (Recycled Sounds and Music Exchange). By your logic that means people aren't listening or purchasing music, which just isn't true.
bookstores and music - apples and oranges... go read the nea study, please.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nea.gov/news/news04/ReadingAtRisk.html
book sales may be fine, though i've seen numerous information to the contrary, but it doesn't mean that people are reading them.
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ReplyDelete