More recently the rise of the internet book seller makes it even more difficult for traditional book shops to remain open. This is true even for second hand or antiquarian books, given the likes of abebooks.
This is true but there is some revival in the book shop scene. For example in Bedford where I live Waterstones seems to be doing well in the town centre, and on Castle Road there is the The Eagle Bookshop which is a second hand bookshop selling all sorts of interesting stuff and Rogan's Books which is devoted to children's books. A couple of small independents have gone west in recent years but in both cases, though pleasant places to visit, they seemed to be lacking in innovation and ideas to get people through the doors. The town still manages to support a WH Smith (if you call that a bookshop), a small Christian bookshop (also on Castle Road) and as well as the main Oxfam Shop with the usual mix of this that and the other both new and second hand, there is a small Oxfam Shop in town on St Paul's Square which just sells books, maps, stamps and music.
I can remember The Eagle Bookshop, which specialises in antiquarian, maths and science books, opening up in 1991 when I thought it would be lucky to last six months but it is still alive, and apparently well, in much larger premises than at the start. I think this is assisted by the most delightfully quirky website which does not sell books but is rather completely focused on persuading you that you can't live any longer without visiting the equally quirky shop.
I think among those surviving and thriving there is a different concept of book shop. Waterstones don't only offer lots of books, maps, etc but have made what might be called 'book accessories' into a bit of an art form. Love such things or hate them (I have a friend who loves the accessories as well as the books which makes for very easy present buying) if they help pay the rent and keep the shop open I'm all for it. Waterstones is also heavily into 'events' ranging from book signings to Harry Potter evenings with everyone turning up with their wands to engage in Hogwart type activities. The traditional book buyer may hate this sort of thing but after all no one is forced to attend. Although Waterstones is a national chain apparently quite a lot of freedom is allowed to individual managers to develop the shop in ways which work in the particular area where they are trying to trade which means the shops have some character rather than just being clones.
Rogan's books are also heavily into events, I went in before Christmas and had to squeeze in sideways through parents with pushchairs and babies in arms who were there with their slightly older children who were watching spellbound as someone demonstrated how he draws illustrations for books. Well I think that was what he was demonstrating but the audience was certainly enjoying it.
Eagle is the least into events but they stick with quirky when they do which suits the style of the place. Also when Eagle decides a book is just too bedraggled to be sold they now turn suitable parts of it into home made greetings cards. I don't suppose the latter is a huge trade but hey I bought two of them for friends I knew would be amused by them and I can't be the only one buying.
This recent article in the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/ ... nky-unhip- was actually less about why e-books seem to have lost a bit of their shine recently than it was about how the severe crisis in book selling finally made both publishers and book shops realise they had to up their act. So there is a trend to publishing books with better text on better paper and with the books own cover decorated in some way not just the dust jacket. Book shops that thrive are doing so by being more creative and more understanding of what the customer wants i.e. the customer who is likely to buy rather than the customer just there to browse.
The other interesting thing is that in some ways e-books are allowing books to be printed which otherwise might never have been published at all. There has been a lot of self-publishing of e-books as obviously it is much more financially feasible to do this than to pay for a print run. Doubtless many self-published books are awful but some are gems which might otherwise never have seen the light. I am a great fan of the Hugh Howey 'Dust' Trilogy, originally self-published as e-books, became something of a cult read for certain types of Sci-Fi fans and now in print in a bookshop near you.
The Guardian article made the point that, as well as enterprising individuals self-publishing in e-book form, publishers now often test the waters with new titles by trying them out in an e-book and then going into print with those which seem to be taking off.