There's an interesting article in the New York Times today about Barnes and Noble, and whether or not they can survive the onslaught of e-books. Now personally, I have to hand it to them for developing a good e-reader, and highlighting it in their stores, vs. the Borders approach in which they had one available, but didn't develop it, own it, support it, know anything about it, or attempt to sell it to you even if you were interested. I'm guessing that the retailers who survive this shift will be the ones who attempt to embrace the new technology rather than try to pretend it's not happening.
But even if B&N and Borders both survive, will their business model in 5 or 10 years look anything like the one they have now? Will there be actual books you can display in a store that people will want to look at? Or will the entire book business someday go online, mostly as electronic downloads, with the few paper books being sold the Amazon way?
Personally, I'll be sad if bookstores go away, even if I am contributing to their demise by owning a B&N nook, which I do love for it's convenience. I haven't stopped reading real books, although I will admit that most of them are library checkouts vs. purchases. There's something about browsing the covers, reading a flap, and finding just the thing to take home and savor just isn't the same with an e-book. But...I've resigned myself that someday that experience may disappear. Do you think that books and bookstores will soon be a thing of the past? Is there any way to revive them? Or do we have to resign ourselves to their inevitable disappearance?