Nourishment is a two way street

Good morning,

The article pasted below comes from an industry email; called "Shelf Awareness" and it hits upon some themes I have been writing about of late. Please note that Ms Ripley was a legendary leader of our industry. I believe and I hope you do as well, that there is something inherently valuable about the existence of Phoenix Books. We offer a sense of community to our customers that doesn't exist on the internet. There is nothing anonymous about sitting across from your friend over a cappuchino and catching up on life. There is nothing overwhelming or depersonalized about chatting with our booksellers about new books, old books or hard to find books. Nor do I feel like a salmon swimming upstream or a futile gesture because I believe that there are enough thoughtful and mindful folks in our community who will come and sustain Phoenix Books in return for nourishing your appetite for literature and coffee:) Read on and feel free to comment!

* * *Sad Ending for Second StorySecond Story Bookshop, Chappaqua, N.Y., is closing, according to the New York Times.
Owner Joan Ripley, who founded the store 37 years ago, told the paper, "Our customer count is so far down, and I attribute that mostly to Amazon, and then you have the double whammy of the economy. . . . Especially for younger people, it's like a game now: You look on the Internet and find where you get something for $10.29 here instead of $10.39 there. We can't compete with that, but there are things you lose in ways that are not numerically measurable when a place like this closes."
The store had come close to shutting its doors in the past, but Ripley, who is 75 and a former ABA president, managed to keep going. She had been helped in part by former President Bill Clinton, a book-buying resident of the town since 2000 who regularly has sung Second Story's praises.
The Times allowed as how indies that are doing well share two attributes:
"Many of the most successful independents, like Bookends in Ridgewood, N.J., or R. J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn., are increasingly in the business of book events and real-world social networking as much as walk-in sales. Despite the aura of predigital charm, they're like any other business: Change and adapt, or die.
"And most of them, whether explicitly or implicitly, have managed to get across the message that we need you, but you need us: A community that wants a vibrant downtown with a local bookstore that's about books, and about something more as well, needs to support it. So, in New Canaan, Conn., for example, Elm Street Books exists because seven local residents put up the money to keep it going, more as a civic gesture than an entrepreneurial one."