I love France…
But I struggle with this…
I also love my Amazon Kindle…
However, part of my issue with the Kindle is the pricing. It makes no sense to pay almost the same price for an electronic version of a Best Seller when the Publisher doesn’t have the costs associated with printing and sending a Hard back to a reader. Yet, the cost is frequently almost the same….and the publishers set the prices in the U.S.
Capitalism run amok! The Corporations do own all the information distribution channels in the US…..
I love the French people’s loyalty to the printed book, but it’s just not practical. I love the portability and convenience of my Kindle…
And, let’s be honest, these are the people who developed the Maginot Line….
And thought it would work…
I miss local bookstores, but….
Let’s be real….
From the Guardian (UK):
In contrast to the UK’s famous three-for-two deals, the French state fixes the prices of books and readers pay the same whether they buy online, at a high-street giant or a small bookseller. Discounting is banned. The government boasts that price controls have saved small independent bookshops from the ravages of free-market capitalism that were unleashed in the UK when it abandoned fixed prices in the 1990s. France has more than 3,000 independent local bookshops and 400 in Paris, compared with around 1,000 in the UK and only 130 in London. But online book giants are still eating into small bookshops, many of which struggle to stay afloat.
via Why France is shunning the ebook | Books | The Guardian.
Lost in the 21st Century 