The closing of Books-A-Million bookstore at Leigh Mall could likely be attributed to any number of causes.
A week and a half ago, the book store’s customers were notified via email the store would be “temporarily closed until further notice,” but its parent company has not responded to questions about whether the store will remain permanently closed, which we consider an ominous non-response.
What we do know is, for now, there are no book stores in Columbus, which seems almost beyond belief, given our city’s literary legacy.
The city that gave the world Tennessee Williams and nurtured Eudora Welty in the budding stages of her literary career, finds itself without a bookstore.
For those who love reading, it’s a psychological blow, and we are left to decipher the store’s demise.
There are any number of possible explanations. One is that Books-a-Million simply shared the gloom fate of so many retailers in Leigh Mall, which was once the heartbeat of our city’s retail sector. It has simply followed the path of so many of the store’s major tenants — Sears, J.C. Penney and Radio Shack to name just a few.
Although Leigh Mall has new owners, there’s been no indication of what they have in mind for the sprawling property. In the meantime, Leigh Mall has become a disturbing reminder of a better time.
Another plausible explanation is that Books-A-Million was yet another victim of modern retail. With the emergence of e-books and online book retailers such as Amazon, the brick-and-mortar bookstore faces its greatest challenge ever. The transition to the online marketplace is a challenge almost every retail establishment faces. Some survive. Others do not. Books-A-Million may simply be a casualty of modern retail preference.
There are also those who question the quality of the store, particularly as it relates to the selection available. Avid bookstore patrons will tell you that the store’s offerings lacked variety and imagination. The strength of brick-and-mortar bookstores in meeting the online challenge has been the potential to be surprised and enticed by something on almost every shelf. That was too rare an occurrence at Books-A-Million, some believe.
Finally, it could be that we as a community have simply lost our appetite for reading. Of all the reasons, that’s the hardest — and most depressing — possibility, one we are reluctant to accept. Are we turning our backs on the slow enjoyment of reading a book in favor of the brief immediacy of social media updates?
Of course, there’s a case to be made that the demise of Books-A-Million could be attributed to a combination of many, maybe even all, of these factors.
However you account for the store’s closing, we remain hopeful that this is temporary and that our city will soon have a bookstore or, perhaps even several smaller stores that cater to a specific audience, a model that has had some success in places like Oxford (Square Books) and Jackson (Lemuria).
If the closing of Books-A-Million is indeed permanent, we hold an optimistic view that perhaps this is just an end that leads to a beginning.
We may be wrong in that assessment, but we cannot bear to consider it any other way.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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