the death of the bookstore
I don't think it will be the end of the "bookstore", they will just change how they do business. Here, Chapters typically has a Starbucks attached to it and it has become a social networking concept as people still want to interact with people outside the digital way.
The wife loaded some kind of e-reader application on our desktop and then downloads the ebook to her palm, well she did it for awhile, now the palm sits on our bookshelf. Now its ipod she is playing with and is back to buying paperbacks.
Why would anyone go to a bookstore when you can get free books at your public library? I take my girls to our local public library, every Friday afternoon at 1pm(here they only go to school half days on Fridays are home by noon), it's standing room only. You can get paperbacks, dvds, cds, audio mp3 books, magazines, foreign content(a lot of chinese and hindi books/movies), free internet if you bring your laptop/notebook or use one of their computers and if you can't get to the actual building, just log onto their website and download an ebook.
Knowing this is how our future is moving, this is where we need the very creative people to design how the books presentation should look. I was thinking of something similar to that this morning, whilst sipping my morning coffee, i was watching the food network on tv and man, the host was firing out the ingredients of what she was making, i couldn't keep up, why not change the presentation, much like a lot of youtube style videos, a box with the recipe listed, a box with cook preping the food, a space with nutrient table and how about fast facts on the health benefit of ingredients being added.
Just look how the local news has changed, ticker tape along the bottom of the screen with more news, a spot with current local weather, a space for the time, stock items, etc.