I know. It’s a big dream. GoodReads is amazing. You’ll probably never leave them.
But the thing is that Amazon just bought them, so in my eyes, they’ve officially gone over to the dark side.
I’ve talked about the fact that I’m an independent bookseller before on this blog, but today I’m going to go pretty far into what that means. You see, Amazon is kind of a douche as a company. They’re monopolizing the book market, putting your favorite little indie bookshops out of business, and frankly, not really giving a damn. Did any of you see when Ann Patchett was on Stephen Colbert? No? Go watch it. For whatever reason, I can’t get it to embed here, but it’s a short video.
So there’s that.
So yeah, I could also rattle off statistics about how your local economy is damaged by shopping at big box stores, but I’m sure the fact that something like 60ish% goes back into your community when you shop local verses the 40ish% that goes back when shopping in a chain doesn’t interest anyone.
And Amazon? Well, just google the history of their tax situation. Or maybe you recall the day that they urged their customers to go into local bookshops and use their “price comparison app” to see how much they could save by shopping online? Yeah, that was fun.
Okay, I should stop ranting. Let me point out why you should shop local and not attack others. That’s not like me.
The local shops are going to take care of you not because they work on commission or because they get paid to, but b ecause they love the fact that you love books and are willing to support the shop because of that. I literally work with a woman who agreed to work FOR BOOKS when things got rough at the store. That’s worth thinking about.
So yeah, I’m leaving GoodReads, because it’s one thing to include Amazon in your business, but to sell out your entire website to them? Well, I’m sorry… If I keep going with them, it’s sleeping with the enemy.
So where am I going?
Two places:
Just search for EmelieAwkwardlyAlive. You’ll find me.
I know it might be inconvenient to ask, but if you would join me, I’d really appreciate it. I also get that a lot of you guys don’t have a local bookshop anywhere near you anymore, so you’ve gone to Amazon just to get your books in general, and that’s still supporting authors and stuff, so I still love you.
I know this wasn’t a particularly funny post, but I really needed to share this with all of you.
I’ll be back to my normal quirk tomorrow!
Love you all.
Emelie.