What could the bookstore of the future look like?
Bethanne Patrick, Executive Editor of Book Riot, asked this question on her blog post, “The Bookstore of the Future, Installment One: What Would Don Draper Handsell?” (hat-tip to @dbsalk for tweeting a link to this post.)
I’d love to see specific niche-by-topic bookstores. Like a bookstore for design books. Heck, it would be cool to have it be a library. I would be willing to pay, say, a dollar to rent a book for a month… BUT under the premise that I could write marginalia in the margins of the book. That is what would be the differentiating factor. The total community experience.
- The bookstore/library would be about one topic area, thus it would be a great place to meet people of like mind.
- The books would have members notes written in the margins. This would help to share more ideas and interaction. Each time someone writes notes in the margin, it is suggested that you use a different color ink. (or in e-books, your notes would just be identified by your username)
Amazon is really missing the boat on:
- How people like to meet around books.
- How people like to share books that have their notes in them. Right now it’s darn near impossible to read someone else’s notes in a kindle-version book.
What should the bookstore of the future have?