BY: BOOKMANS

Since then, my career has branched into a lot of different, but related, areas.  I was the VP of Marketing for a comic book publisher that also produced graphic novels, and licensed some of its characters for prose novels (some of which I wrote). When that company was bought by DC Comics, I became a Senior Editor there. After a few years of that, I moved to a small press that published comics and novels and art books, to become their first Editor-in-Chief. I have always worked around books and publishing, and I've been able to see the business from a lot of different angles. I like to think I'm acquainted with the whole process, from coming up with the initial idea for the book to selling it to a reader and putting the money in the drawer.

The online retail business is great for some things, and it has made a world of products available to people who might not have been able to find them before - people in remote rural areas, or in countries where things are just not allowed, or people with handicaps that limit their ability to visit stores. But it will never replace the experience of browsing, of actually shopping - and not just for books. When I buy clothes, I want to feel the fabric. When I buy tools I want to feel their heft in my hands. And when I buy books I want to hold them, to turn them over, read the back cover, maybe scan a few pages inside. Books are a tactile experience that will never be adequately reproduced by a "book reader," and buying books in a store is the best way to acquire them. No matter how sophisticated a website's "if you like X, you might like Y" software is, it can't duplicate the experience of walking a bookstore's aisles, where you might see something on a shelf or an endcap that you never knew existed, and so didn't know you were looking for, but that is exactly what you want or need. How many people have found their new favorite author or favorite book in a bookstore, entirely by accident, versus those who have discovered something new online? I fear that an emphasis on buying books online will lead to more books by the same people being sold, and fewer new voices being discovered.  At a time when book review sections in newspapers are disappearing, and online shopping is still mostly a matter of finding what you know you're looking for, how are readers supposed to stumble upon fresh new writers?

Plus, the standard arguments for shopping locally apply to bookstores as to other independent businesses. Money spent in a local indie is money that will stay in your community, benefiting you and your neighbors. Independent brick-and-mortar stores employ local people, which online mega-retailers can't, and they turn employees into managers and leaders who will continue to benefit their communities, in a way that huge Wal-Mart type stores can't. Independent stores react to their customers in a way that chain stores can't, truly reflecting the communities in which they're based. And brick-and-mortar stores serve as gathering places for communities, able to provide services like author appearances, book groups, story hours, etc., that online stores can never hope to replicate. If we're not going to become hopelessly isolated in our own homes, we need to get away from the computer and visit real places, including - and especially - independent bookstores.

How long have you been shopping Bookmans? Do you have a favorite location?

My first trip to Bookmans came in April, 2004. We had come out to Bisbee to visit friends and look for a new place to live, ready to get out of the southern California madness. We stopped for the night in Tucson before heading home, and a furious thunderstorm knocked out the power to the area our motel was in. We decided that, rather than sit in a dark motel room, we'd go find a bookstore and some dinner. With no clue how long Speedway was, we got on it from the I-10 frontage road and started driving, and driving, and driving, and eventually we saw it, glowing like a beacon in the night.

I continue to love Bookmans. It's like a wish-fulfillment center. I can go in, for instance, in the mood for a Hoyt Axton LP, and find two sitting in the bins. Or a Waterboys CD, or a James Bond DVD, or a Joseph Wood Krutch book, or... well, pretty much anything. For the aforementioned "CSI: Miami" novel, I had to do a lot of research on forensics, anatomy, police procedure, etc., and while some of it was done online and some in person, consulting with experts, the vast majority came from books I picked up on a one-day spree that included Tucson's three locations. I usually find myself at the Speedway location, but the others are part of my regular Tucson haunts, too (Grant more than Ina, because it's also close to comic shop R-Galaxy on Campbell).

Many thanks to Jeff Mariotte. "Missing White Girl" is available now. Visit the links below for details. Also, check out his list of Essential Western Fiction in our new feature, Handpicked.

JeffMariotte.com
Dispatches from the Flying M
Jeff Mariotte's MySpace
Jeff Mariotte's ComicSpace