About two months ago, Borders Books and Music announced they were closing up shop. It seemed like a foregone conclusion to me because of how well their direct competitor, Barnes and Noble, has done (note: I worked at Borders in college and enjoyed it, likely owing my love of books to that job). That got me thinking: what would happen if all bookstores went by the wayside? Would shopping for kids books be the same if you just used your one-click Amazon.com shopping?
In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that I shop at a variety of book outlets. I hit Barnes and Noble to browse the new books, picking up books to see if my kids might like them. I head over the Ravenna Third Place Books for their mixture of new and used books. I get more bang for my buck there. Lastly, I shop Amazon when I am a little lazy and know what I want. Often that means buying more than I should because I want free shipping!
The Internet is a big part of the bookseller demise. I'll admit that Amazon is fantastic, and I can get virtually everything I'm looking for (not a guarantee at the other options). But I will seldom buy books there sight unseen. Why? My preference is to be able to flip through the book prior to purchase. While Amazon lets you read the first few pages, but sometimes you need to see if there are illustrations, or a variance in text later on (or chapter length etc).
That leads me to Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist. I likely wouldn't have purchased this book without a trip to the bookstore. I saw it faced out at Barnes and Noble (as an aside, I saw recommendations for the book the Emerald Atlas on twitter, bringing about this trip). I thought the book looked slim on pages for my kiddos but the cover was intriguing. As I flipped through the text looked to appropriate and the writing was engaging. Since I was buying other books, I opted to bring this along. Great choice. It is approachable for kids in the middle grades, not overwhelming like some of the 200-300+ page books. It fits into that category of realistic fantasy without being too wordy. I'm excited I got it. It isn't a Newbery winner or contender, but a nice addition to the library. Hopefully neither of my brick and mortar bookstores will go under any time soon.
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