Gifting a real bookstore

With the holidays approaching, I've acquired a pretty long list of books to purchase as gifts—along with the usual temptation to just buy them all at Amazon and be done with it in a couple minutes.

Amazon, of course, makes it all devilishly easy with "1-Click" ordering, which tops my personal list of technology-spawned temptations.

All in all, it's tough to pass up Amazon this holiday season—even though that's what I'm planning to do. After all, order a bunch of books from them and you get a) free shipping b) often a substantial discount off the cover price of a title c) books that come right to your mailbox, avoiding wasted time and gasoline, and d) did I mention the devilishly easy 1-Click ordering?

But enough of this unintended commercial for Amazon. I'm going to give my order to Boswell Book Company, Daniel Goldin's newish bookstore on Downer Avenue in Milwaukee. (It is one of the stores that have replaced the Schwartz Bookshops, which went out of business earlier this year.) Why? Because, like most readers of The Writer, I want to see non-virtual bookstores stay around, and it won't happen without giving them business. For us book-lovers, an independent bookstore is a really neat part of the texture of a community, and besides, who wants to browse a computer?

I'm hoping for a smooth buying experience at Boswell's. Yes, I may have to special-order a book or two or three there, versus the ease of Amazon ordering and availability, and I may have to hunt around a little for a parking space, but I'm willing to put up with a bit of inconvenience. A bit.

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