Sorry, Steve Jobs

By Turney Stevens, Dean


"The bookstore is dead."

If you live in Nashville, you might be inclined to believe that propaganda.

But, if you live in Oxford, you would most certainly disagree in the
strongest terms. Because, here, the book is very much alive and very
much revered. And Oxford has possibly the greatest bookstore on the
planet.

Over the past year, we've witnessed the closing of an astounding
number of bookstores in Nashville including the best of them all,
Davis Kidd Booksellers.

Life is just not the same. No more haven of escape on a Sunday
afternoon to browse the "New Titles" table and pick up a copy of the
Sunday New York Times. No more slow sipping of a cappuccino while
reading the first few pages of a particularly intriguing new best
seller. No more marathon shopping spree just days before Christmas,
buying every single person on my list their own very special book--
not just any book, a book thoughtfully selected just for each person's
unique interests even if a whole afternoon is required. That was after
all, the year's best afternoon.

Bookstores are about more than just books. They're about everything,
and anything, and all things. They're mystical places, not just shops
selling merchandise.

I can't go to a bookstore anymore in Nashville. Or at least I have to
drive a long way to do so.

But this is Oxford.

And Oxford still has Blackwell's Bookshop, perhaps the greatest
bookstore in the world.



Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford
(Exterior Renovation In Process)


At least that's what my host this week, Dr. F. King Alexander,
president of California State University Long Beach, told me when he
introduced me to Blackwell's for the first time.

He should know because he studied here for two years and returns each
summer for the Oxford Roundtable Programs his father started twenty
years ago.

Four floors of books. Best sellers, slow sellers, esoteric titles,
popular titles. More than 10,000 square feet of space in the basement
level alone, every inch of its 3 miles of shelves packed with 160,000
books. A Rare Books section containing first editions of Milton.
Discipline-specific sections for just about any and every subject
area. And, of course, a cappuccino cafe on the second floor.



Blackwell's Basement


Blackwell's Bookshop was founded in 1879 by Benjamin Henry Blackwell,
son of the town librarian. That first store had just 12 square feet.
Today there are over 60 Blackwell's stores throughout Britain but the
store at 50 Broad Street in Oxford is the flagship.

There is an online bookstore (bookshop.blackwells.co.uk) and the site
does have over 6,000,000 titles, but the allure is just not the same.

I'm writing this on my iPhone (on which I have read several dozen
books). I have an iPad and a MacBook Pro. We're thinking of going
bookless at the College of Business by using only digital texts. I am
as hip to e-books as anybody.

But, walking into Blackwell's was very nearly a spiritual experience.
There is nothing like a real bookstore and, in Oxford, they may have
the world's best.

Sorry, Steve Jobs.

As smart as you are, you can't kill the bookstore.

Because bookstores are about more than just books.


This will conclude Dean Stevens' blogs from Oxford. His conference has concluded and he is returning home this weekend. Thank you for following his posts all week and we hope you have enjoyed his observations on life at the University of Oxford.