For a bookstore to remain successful, it must improve “the experience of buying books,” says Alex Lifschutz, an architect whose London-based practice is designing the new Foyles. He suggests an array of approaches: “small, quiet spaces cocooned with books; larger spaces where one can dwell and read; other larger but still intimate spaces where one can hear talks from authors about books, literature, science, travel and cookery." The atmosphere is vital, he adds. Exteriors must buzz with activity, entrances must be full of eye-catching presentations and a bar and café is essential.

As much as I am sad that bookstores around me are closing, I am part of the problem. I read ebooks almost exclusively nowadays, and there are few things that would move me back to physical books. I don't know what bookstores could do to draw me back. I do love going to bookstores, but only browse nowadays, and am not really a "paying customer." I'm sure I'm not the only one there just browsing who then goes home and grabs the ebook version of something that caught my eye on a shelf.

posted 4060 days ago