What do Newton Bookshop in Newton, Pennsylvania, Blue Elephant Bookshop in Decatur. Georgia, Edgartown Books in Edgartown, Massachusetts, Mystery Lovers Bookstore in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, and Outwrite Booksellers in Atlanta, Georgia, have in common? They have all closed or been put up for sale in recent months. It's a hard time to be an independent, bricks and mortar bookstore trying to make it in the Amazon and e-book era. Authors fear it will be harder and harder to secure local promotion for their new books and that coveted spot in the front window display. Publishers fear Amazon's apparently successful grab at being all things to all people in the world of books - from publisher to distributor, review source and perhaps even local store. But was there ever a golden age of booksellers and if so, when was it? Was there a time when readers in almost any town in America could go to a fine, local, independent bookstore and browse through an endless supply of classics, children's books, mysteries, romances, non-fiction, history, art books, cookbooks, newly released best sellers, etc. Or is that just a piece of well constructed nostalgia?

In 1931 only 500 bookstores existed in the United States. By 1940 almost 95 percent of Americans could read, but bookstores were only located in one third of U. S. counties. Mostly they were located in large cities. And the vast majority of book buyers purchased their books in stationery stores and supermarkets where the selection was very limited. These stores mostly carried a selection of bestsellers, celebrity memoirs, and self-help books.

By the 1970s superstores and chains were dominating the bookstore business, threatening independent bookstores with their discount prices and merchandizing know-how. But again the floor space was carefully allotted to the most popular books, and people complained that older titles, classics, and more niche titles were missing. Coffee became a popular staple of such stores, and now most of them are extinct. So the question is was there ever a wonderful thriving, independent bookstore industry in this county, or was it just a myth?

Today the legacy publishing industry, some authors, and some book buyers fear that the internet and e-books, Amazon.com and its Kindle reader in particular, will be responsible for the death of the local bookstore. If that happens, we have only ourselves to blame. My husband worked in the book publishing business for many years - in the area of marketing. He tells of going to a school in New York City to call upon the school's bookstore manager and noting that in the school mail room, located across from the bookstore, the mailboxes were utterly filled with boxes from Amazon.com. That store has since closed. Whether the store was not carrying the stock the students wanted or the students just liked the convenience of shopping from their laptops is not really relevant. The point is something better that fills more needs has come along, and when we immortalize the good old days and those quaint and wonderful stores, we leave something out of the picture - reality. Moreover we forget about how many more books customers now have at their fingertips; how many more authors can get their books into print and distributed; how convenient it is to shop for a book from bed or your beach chair; and how truly democratic it all is.