I write futuristic science fiction, so a lot of my Google searches end with the words
"... of the future."
These days everyone's walking around with a device in their hands (iPad, iPhone, iPluggedIn), and it increasingly feels like the Future Is Now. Being a gadget person, I'm not averse to any of this (quite the opposite), but I wonder what will happen to bookstores. I used to pedal my bike to the local mini-mall, where an independent bookstore was tucked in a tiny space next to the Sav-On. Every week, I would spend about 1/2 an hour scanning the Science Fiction shelves searching for just the right book to spend my allowance on. I used to dream of having a room in my house, wall-to-wall with books.
Like this, only less stuffy.
As recently as a year ago, I shopped at the bricks-n-mortar bookstores as much as possible, hoping to keep them afloat. Then they converted half their floor space to toys, and more often than not I couldn't get the book I wanted. Sure, they could order it, but hey, I can do that from my house! Without paying for gas (or shipping, since I'm a "member"). It drove home for me that giant bookshelves of books was possibly the least sensible way to gain access to stories and would one day (soon) become a museum exhibit of the way that books used to be distributed. That sentence will make some people shudder (and I might even be one of them), but instead of becoming mired in nostalgia, I pictured the real Bookstore of the Future. The one that would really happen.
And what I - author, reader, book lover - would want it to be.
I want to a bookstore that looks like an Apple store on steroids.
I want a digital store front, with animated touchscreens in the children's section.
I want a place where a group can gather around a screen for a skyped author visit.
I want a place that welcomes local authors as well as touring celebrities. That hosts writing competitions for youth and classes for literature enjoyment, analysis, and creation. That provides a community gathering place that celebrates all things literary.
I want a place that serves coffee and pastries in the morning, a High Tea and Book afternoon affair, and wine-and-cheese events in the evenings.
I want a section where I can play and learn about the latest gadgets that will house my personal story collection next.
It wouldn't surprise me. But no one has a lock on the future - it's there for the grabbing by the one with the most imagination.
Is your Future Bookstore an Indie Boutique filled with the smell of paper and ink?
Or a Tech Wonderland like Corning's Day of Glass?
What do you want in your Future Bookstore?
