Are bookstores becoming "showrooms for books" ??

A report in the StarTribune details the declining number of independent bookstores in the Twin Cities:

In a shakeout inducing shivers to rival a suspense novel, one local independent bookseller after another is closing up shop... "We have lost a lot of regular customers to the e-book revolution," said owner Charlie Leonard.

Booksellers are calling the shift a "Gutenberg moment" for the entire publishing industry, likening it to Johannes Gutenberg's game-changing invention of movable type almost 600 years ago.

E-books aren't the only adversary, of course; people are buying fewer books in general. Still, dusting bookshelves in the digital age is starting to feel a bit quaint...

Lately, she said, more customers are browsing to decide which books to download at home. "We're really now a showroom for books.''

The number of independent bookstores has been declining for some time, from about 6,000 in the early 1990s to about 2,200 today, according to the American Booksellers Association...

"I used to have Boy Scouts who would go to garage sales and buy a book for 50 cents and sell it to me for $2," Cummings said. "They don't need me anymore. They can do it themselves" online.