I was watching the news while running on the treadmill this morning and saw a piece about how the last bookstore in Laredo, Texas is closing. I'm not surprised. Bookstores are going the way of the dodo. Don't get me wrong - I love books and I love bookstores. I grew up spending hours in bookstores as a kid. I own literally thousands of books. But the reality is that it is a lot easier to get a new book from Amazon than it is to take a drive off to a bookstore. I can read the reviews on Amazon and see what others think about a book. I can usually peruse the Table of Contents online and sometimes read an excerpt. With Amazon Prime shipping I can get 2-day delivery for free or overnight delivery for $3.99 per item. That's cheap. As a consultant used to billable time, it's really cheap compared to how long it would take to get into the car, drive to the bookstore, find the book, stand in line at the counter, check out, get back into the car, and drive home. No comparison, really. And this all becomes moot when it comes to digital media. Other than a couple of technical reference books, I haven't bought a real paper book in months. I've bought lots of books, but I've purchased them all in the Kindle digital format and I download them to the Kindle app on my iPhone. The small screen is kind of a nuisance but the reading is about the same and I can now carry thousands of books with me on a single device. Assuming the new table device from Apple is oriented towards books and reading, I suspect I'll never buy another paper book. And, thus, I would never need to set foot in a bookstore again.