- For a bookstore to remain successful, it must improve “the experience of buying books,” says Alex Lifschutz, an architect whose London-based practice is designing the new Foyles. He suggests an array of approaches: “small, quiet spaces cocooned with books; larger spaces where one can dwell and read; other larger but still intimate spaces where one can hear talks from authors about books, literature, science, travel and cookery." The atmosphere is vital, he adds. Exteriors must buzz with activity, entrances must be full of eye-catching presentations and a bar and café is essential.
I was about to quote that exact same passage. There's a shop where I live that covers off all factors, most essentially the bar & café, with delicious food and generous pours of beer, wine, and literary-themed cocktails. As a place it borders on, but doesn't cross over into, parody. As much as I've wondered, aloud and via twitter, whether art will ever be as interesting to people as food seems to be these days, I do agree that the bar & café sets this place apart from any other bookstore besides a select few in the city.
That looks like a nice, quaint, little place. Do you eat there often? I think a book store that had a full bar and served prohibition era cocktails and sold books from that era would do well these days. I would probably curse it under my breath while guiltily enjoying my Gatsby and Corpse Reviver #1
As much as I am sad that bookstores around me are closing, I am part of the problem. I read ebooks almost exclusively nowadays, and there are few things that would move me back to physical books. I don't know what bookstores could do to draw me back. I do love going to bookstores, but only browse nowadays, and am not really a "paying customer." I'm sure I'm not the only one there just browsing who then goes home and grabs the ebook version of something that caught my eye on a shelf.