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The history of mail-order book purchasing
Nov. 25th, 2009 01:53 pmHas anyone written about this topic? I was reading another rant about
the lost pleasure of book browsing
http://blogs.nybooks.com/post/212201723/the-lost-pleasure-of-browsing
which frames the mail-order purchase of books as a relatively new innovation, and yet I seem to have assimilated the idea that in past centuries many established book stores sent out catalogs and did mail-order business. In a history of witchcraft which I recently read, it was at one point mentioned that, for those who lived anywhere other than large cities such as London, they would have had to have ordered their books on the occult from London bookshops. And certainly through the early twentieth century American readers were still often ordering books from across the pond.
Yes, browsing bookstores is a pleasure, but it seems poring over catalogs of books is also a well-established pleasure, and I know some booksellers still send out such paper catalogs.
the lost pleasure of book browsing
http://blogs.nybooks.com/post/212201723/the-lost-pleasure-of-browsing
which frames the mail-order purchase of books as a relatively new innovation, and yet I seem to have assimilated the idea that in past centuries many established book stores sent out catalogs and did mail-order business. In a history of witchcraft which I recently read, it was at one point mentioned that, for those who lived anywhere other than large cities such as London, they would have had to have ordered their books on the occult from London bookshops. And certainly through the early twentieth century American readers were still often ordering books from across the pond.
Yes, browsing bookstores is a pleasure, but it seems poring over catalogs of books is also a well-established pleasure, and I know some booksellers still send out such paper catalogs.
