Goodbye to The Book Room

Continuing in the vein of the Class of 2k8's blog which posted this week about favourite bookstores...Here's a sad bit of news:

Canada's oldest bookstore, The Book Room, will close its doors at the end of March. The Halifax bookstore has been around for 169 years. Since 1839! So, this bookstore lasted through two world wars and the Depression. Wow.

The reasons for The Book Room's demise: online ordering, big box bookstores (like Chapters in Canada or B&N here in the US), pharmacies/grocery stores selling books. And the dual pricing on the backs of books. The pice in Canada is still always higher, despite the strong Canuck dollar. (This really blows me away because I actually blogged about this.And I so don't consider myself a cutting-edge anything, never mind a cutting-edge blogger. Okay, okay. So, it was probably just dumb luck. Still... :) )

Anyway, I'm scrolling through a few articles about The Book Room and I realize that I, too, am responsible. No, I've never shopped there. I've only been to Halifax once and it was about a million billion years ago. BUT I am guilty of click, click buying books online. And I lurve the Barnes & Noble coupons that arrive in my inbox. And I'm all over those grocery store book sales where you get 3 books for $5 or something ridiculous.

I have one sister who stoically sticks by her indie bookstore which I believe is Another Story Bookstore. She refuses to buy books online or at one of the big chains. Flat-out refuses. So, when she gives me a book as a gift, I can feel doubly good. I have a new book to read AND I helped support one of the little guys.

So, this is what I'm thinking. What if the next book I buy is from an independent bookstore? And maybe every fifth book after that?

What do you guys think? To what extent do our pocketbooks dictate where we buy books? To indie or not to indie?