Someone Cooked The Books?

In the two months that I've been in Toronto this winter, three bookstores have announced their closing and/or demise.

The Cookbook Store. Gone.
Book City (Bloor St.). Gone.
World's Biggest Book Store. Gone.

The popularity of the internet and on-line shopping has changed the way people buy books. For the small bookstore, or the so-called 'World's Biggest', the writing is on the wall. It's certainly no longer in the store.

I went into the World's Biggest Bookstore when they were having their final sale with everything greatly reduced. I literally took three steps into the store, saw the checkout line-up which was the world's biggest, perhaps 80 feet long, did a pirouette and marched back out the door. The only way to get people into a bookstore, it would appear, is to go out of business. It's a perplexing recipe for both success and failure, and not one you can find at the Cookbook Store anymore.