Dockside Bookshop Closing Follows Industry Trend

That's really sad. I have a few select books from my library sitting next to my computer and quite a few are from Dockside that I picked up in the early-mid 80s...

This is a huge loss for the community. Where are the young people going to find their summer reading books? Where are local authors going to sell their books? Where are the non-digital readers going to find books? I am extremely disheartened.

Somebody needs to start a local ebook site to encourage more people to publish their stories. Move the bookstore online. VI Council of the Arts, are you listening?

411: That is a great deal except for the person who doesn't have access to computers. A book store is a place where people, small and large, can explore words and ideas handed down through time. The fact that we can have 5 zillion video lottery parlors and can't support one book store is outrageous.

Terrible news! That and the library still not open does speak volumes about priorities! I wish word of businesses having problems would leak so the public could support them in our small ways.

The broadband project is supposed to increase computer access. Bookstores worldwide are closing so we shouldn't be surprised that this one is closing.

Is the bookstore in Crown Bay still open? I can never remember the name, but it's got an owl in the name.

The library had a soft opening last week.

Did anyone go to the Library's opening?
How's the book selection?
Where is it located, exactly?

I love reading books and the feel of them in my hands.
I never thought we'd see a day when we would have no bookstore, whatsoever, in St. Thomas.
Growing up here, we would always go to the bookstore on back street, after mass on Sundays, where I would spend all of my weekly allowance. I don't want to read a book off of my computer or Ipad or whatever electronic gizmo that's out there.
How are kids without access to computers, etc. supposed to get their books for summer reading?

K-mart has a pathetically small selection of books.
Guess, I'll have to find a book club and see if they ship to the VI. Ye gads!

It really is a shame that Dockside is closing after all these years.
They had a great staff who were always helpful, courtesous and provided great service.
Hope they will all find good jobs and I wish the owners and their employees all the best.
We will miss them!

Undercover Books on St. Croix is still open and has online ordering. I would guess they could ship to STT so people can still get their books in the territory.

I was reading when I was four years old and vividly remember my two older brothers asking, "when will you ever learn to read in your head" as I lay spread out on the floor reading aloud a huge variety of print. I grew up with books, devoured books. Even when I was much older, I had a "feel" for old books, loving the texture and feel of the bindings as well as the content. There will still be a market for those books but even Jonathan Gjessing saw the writing on the wall a while ago as evidenced by his comments.

You may have to be dragged kicking and screaming into e-book technology but this is a battle you're just not going to win so best to get used to it. Authors and readers alike have embraced it very successfully and the younger generations totally embrace it. The bigger issue where the USVI is concerned is not how children read but instilling in them the desire to read and thus explore their world both past and present.

Again, there's a bookstore at Crown Bay. I think it's the Owl and Seahorse. I'll see if I can confirm tomorrow, buy from there I
to supper local vendors.

I love books. I love their feel, I love their smell. I love the way they look on book shelves. I love holding them and turning the pages. Before we moved to the USVI 10 years ago, I had 4, 6-foot tall book shelves on our spare bedroom. I still had boxes of books from my kids growing-up years.

And now I have a Kindle Fire HD. It is not as satisfying as a real book, but I can read it in the dark. I can finish one book and immediately get the next book in a series. I can take it on a 3 week adventure to Europe and always have an English book to read. In a pinch, I can watch a movie or TV Show. And, for people like me who are trying to whittle down their earthly possessions, it allows me to have my library at my fingertips, always.

Brave new world.

Linda J: I agree with you about real books. After the apocalypse e-books will be worthless piles of trash along the side of "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.;)

LindaJ's post brought back memories. When I moved here in '84, the major portion of the boxes I sent USPS parcel post contained BOOKS! I have a very basic Kindle which a friend sent me a couple of years ago and it's been gathering dust - but I'm soon going to get it out of the drawer and wrap my old brain around its use. In the event of an apocalypse it's more likely than not that nobody will be around to savor books in any format. 😀

When we moved to STX, we packed up and brought our HIGH SCHOL YEARBOOKS - why? I have no idea. I also brought all my medical reference books (educated as a registered nurse) and about 25 old inherited cookbooks. Talk about living in the past. lol.

How many books can you keep/store on an ipad or kindle?

I am a huge reader. I hate to give up my books as will reread every few yrs.and keep all books by specific authors.
I go thru my huge book shelves once a year and donate those I know I won't miss but I still have lots of books.
I did manage to part with a ton of cook books last yr. but still have way too many, I know.

Funny, I don't have a problem getting rid of other things during my annual "spring cleaning binge" but absolutely HATE to part with books.
I may have to end up buying a kindle or Ipad, kicking and sceaming all the way.
Which is better?

"The first-generation Kindle offers 2GB of storage, sufficient to store about 1,400 books, according to Amazon.com. The Kindle Touch doubles the storage capacity to 4GB and can hold about 3,000 books. The Kindle Keyboard and Kindle DX also come with 4GB of storage space, but thanks to software optimization, more of this space is available for e-book storage. Amazon estimates these third-generation Kindles can store 3,500 books. The Kindle Fire boasts 8GB of storage, but only 6GB is available for use. This fourth generation Kindle can store about 6,000 books, which assumes that the user has up to 80 apps or other media installed as well."

Enough? 😀

I may have to end up buying a kindle or Ipad, kicking and screaming all the way.

Don't have a lot of experience with Apple's book store but have had a kindle since they first came out. Amazon's kindle store you can find just about anything. There are also a lot of free books online that you can get and you can even convert PDF files into a format that the kindle "reads". The Kindle app is also available for PCs, Android phones and tablets, as well as apple phones and devices. With kindle purchases you can have the books on multiple devices. I think at any given time I have 50 or so books on my phone...

Which is better?
Is Kindle only for downloading books/storage?
Can you use as a laptop with other data storage, pics, files, PFD's?
Can you connect a Ipad to a printer? I am hopelessly non tech inclined.
Thanks for advice.

Google Kindle vs iPad and you'll find scores of related links explaining the pros and cons.

I am old fashioned and, as posted above, I like the feel of a printed paper book, newspaper, and magazine... No need to charge, no need to turn-on, no need to update, no worries about being obsolete!.. It is hard to beet walking into a bookstore and see something out of the corner of your eye and, VOILA, you hit jackpot... Now, you do a search... Not very exciting... The upside to the new e-books is that it "saves" the trees... If you want that book now, you download it NOW...On the downside is that, since it is a digital book, you may no longer gloat of a collectible print! How about the author signing a copy for you? What's he/she going to do? Electronically sign it or put a stamp on your reader? The price of technology... Very sad to see all bookstores slowly but surely disappear...

P.S. Don't forget, there is also Barnes & Nobles' Nook Tablet... Not that I care much about it but, it is also out there...

Google Kindle vs iPad and you'll find scores of related links explaining the pros and cons.

Yes, I understand the links are there but I was looking for how people actually felt/used the 2 different types of technologies.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20009738-1/kindle-vs-nook-vs-ipad-which-e-book-reader-should-you-buy/

This a link that reviews the three main readers... They update it consistently about every 6 months...

How many books can you keep/store on an ipad or kindle?

I am a huge reader. I hate to give up my books as will reread every few yrs.and keep all books by specific authors.
I go thru my huge book shelves once a year and donate those I know I won't miss but I still have lots of books.
I did manage to part with a ton of cook books last yr. but still have way too many, I know.

Funny, I don't have a problem getting rid of other things during my annual "spring cleaning binge" but absolutely HATE to part with books.
I may have to end up buying a kindle or Ipad, kicking and sceaming all the way.
Which is better?

I'm also a huge reader and love everything about a good physical book in my hands but traveling as much as I do and living aboard a boat makes book storage a huge pain. I've got a nice library of physical books at home in California but adopted a few e-readers over the past few years for the convience factor while on the boat/traveling. It took me a few days to get used to reading on a screen and the feeling of not having a paper book in hand but now it's second nature and I don't even think about it. Since I've had all the major platforms I'll give you rundown, these are of course just my opinions.

I've had a Nook (Barnes and Noble), an iPad (original) and 2 Kindle Fires (one HD model, one classic) and they're all nice and have their pros and cons.

Of the three the iPad is the most computer like and as such has more accessories and capabilities than the others but at a significantly higher cost of course. There are apps available for pretty much anything/everything you could want to do.

The Nook is nice and works well but B&N is going to stop directly making and selling all but the lowest end model (black and white e-ink model) which would scare me away at this point just because of the unknowns of having future models made by unknown third parties. There is a decent selection of apps available though how the above change to 3rd party models will affect this (or if it will) is something to consider.

The Kindle(s) are excellent e-book readers and the Fire models (HD or non) also work well for watching the occasional movie, browsing the web, reading emails, etc. There is a crazy amount of content on Amazon for the Kindle and you can also easily load your own stuff like files, music/movies, PDFs, etc as well. I mostly use my classic Kindle Fire which has 8GB of built in storage that should easily hold 5,000 books but I've only got a fraction of that on there. Amazon also stores all your purchased books (and other content) on their 'cloud' which for all intents and purposes means that storage space is unlimited and you can download that content to your local storare on the Kindle whenver you need it. I have yet to have the need to store thousands and thousands of books on my local storage but good to know I can if we do something like go cruising where there isn't good internet access, etc.

All in all I like my Kindle(s) the best. I think it's 'better' than the Nook and I prefer Amazon's customer service, content and system to that of B&N. The iPad is awesome but since 90% of the time I just want to use my devices to read books I don't take advantage of it's capabilities so they're kind of moot.