With the rapid development of modern technology, the vigorous development of the Internet world and the development of the logistics industry, the life of modern people has become more convenient and more efficient. The emergence of online bookstores makes people no longer need to go to the physical bookstore to find and buy books. In addition to convenience, the price is also cheaper than physical bookstores. Therefore, the competitive pressure of various physical bookstores has been increased. In addition, the emergence of e-books has also highlighted the space limitation of physical books, bringing another pressure to physical bookstores.

However, this does not mean that brick-and-mortar bookstores will become strangers. The main key lies in the experience brought by the act of visiting the bookstore. But just saying "experience" is a bit vague. How can we think about "going around"? Shima Koichiro, the founder of Japan's "Bookstore Awards" and the creative director of Hakuhodo, is also a well-known advertiser in addition to running an independent bookstore called Book & Beer. In a recent new book, "The Counterattack of the Bookstore," it carefully and deeply analyzes the charm and characteristics of the bookstore experience, and how brick-and-mortar bookstores can make good use of these characteristics to earn income.

Reading is like traveling

Going to a bookstore is not the same as searching the Internet for a particular book to buy. The reason why visiting a bookstore is "going around" is that it has no specific purpose in itself. Even, people visiting bookstores do not necessarily want to buy books. So, why "go around"?

"Reading books is like traveling", this is the author's favorite and most recognized view of reading books. Although the trip has a planned destination and number of days. But people like to travel mainly because they hope to encounter unexpected things along the way. And "bookstores let customers meet books through decoration. How to arrange the way of meeting, each bookstore has a different style." People want to go shopping, in fact, they want to have a book with a book they didn't know they would like before. The book happened by chance.

Here, Koichiro Shima proposes a concept of "Associative Bookshelf". He believes that bookstores do not necessarily have to display books according to the standard disciplines of literature, philosophy, business, history, natural science and technology, etc. Instead, find books in different fields that can be related in content and themes. For example: "Place a monastery wine-making book next to a Christian book, next to this book there is a cheese book, and a cartoon of fungus characters related to fermentation". Or, regularly display books on a specific topic, such as time, at a counter. The books placed on it are not necessarily only books about physics, the universe, and space-time theory, but also some novels, philosophy, prose, etc. that use space-time theory or write time and reflect. In addition, you can add some ingenuity. Among these books, the more famous and well-known ones are placed in the center, and the books that are not often noticed are slowly placed next to them. effect of cognition.

Bookstores are places to engage with the world

The related display and display methods are different from the marketing methods used by online bookstores to recommend books on similar or the same topics. "It's not simply connecting authors and themes, but finding a point of view, slowly stringing the books together, and 'jumping' moderately at the same time." This kind of jumping is actually a kind of cross-domain, which allows people to understand specific issues. What influence and reflection can there be in other fields, or how it can be transformed by different textual discourse methods, resulting in a profound experience. At the same time, it also allows us to discover the position of our interests in the "world system", build our own knowledge system in our minds, and accidentally find ways to combine with other fields. In other words, bookstores help us open the window to other different types of books. Even, help us open up our vision of the world.

Furthermore, Shima Koichiro believes that people who run bookstores need two kinds of abilities, namely, the power of chance and the power of connection.

The power of chance refers to "the ability to accidentally discover something interesting or valuable"

Connectivity is: "the ability to connect different themes"

The combination of the two abilities becomes what is called a "perspective". It is the ability to combine information from different fields with unusual understandings into an insightful perspective. The author believes that this is also called "planning", that is, "the ability to make unexpected combinations of various things that many people know about. The ability to combine different things that no one else has thought about." The bookstore's point of view is the way bookstores place, display, and organize books, and through this way to stimulate people's curiosity and desire. In addition to making people want to buy books, it can also make people want to visit from time to time.

A New Bookstore Format: Featured Bookstores

When people talk about "Wen Qing", they always accompany the elegant image of sitting in a cafe while reading a book and drinking coffee or tea. However, why does the so-called "Wen Qing" have to be like this?

To make people want to visit, in addition to the design of book display and furnishings, the diversification of decoration and services can also be used as a feature. This type of business is called a multi-storey store by Shima Koichiro. In the Book & Beer bookstore he runs, the bookstore not only sells books, but also sells beer for customers to sit at the table and read while drinking. In addition, bookstores also sell furniture, especially bookcases and bookshelves. The reason for this idea is that Shima Koichiro believes that if customers see the actual use of bookcases and bookshelves in bookstores, as well as the appearance of their favorite books on the bookshelves, it will increase the attractiveness of bookshelf products to customers. Finally, the bookstore also holds various types of activities from time to time, such as talk shows, topic discussions, reading discussions and so on. Or something special, like inviting some writers to have a "New Year's Eve in the bookstore" activity with readers. To attract a variety of different types of customers.

In addition to being a feature, the feature is actually looking for and establishing the relationship between reading and other behaviors and activities in life. Only in this way can the experience of the bookstore be enriched, and it will make people want to go in.

"Know" is divided into two

Reading is often to acquire useful knowledge for ourselves, just like we use google to search for the information we need. But here, Shima Koichiro wants us to suspend the perception of usefulness/uselessness. From his point of view, bookstores do not only provide useful books, but the existence and experience of bookstores is also to break and expand people's perception of the usefulness/uselessness of certain things. Because this judgment will hinder people's curiosity.

"Knowing is divided into two types, that is, 'know what you want to know' and 'what you don't know'" and all the design of the bookstore is to stimulate people who walk in to be curious about "what they don't know". Because the first kind of "knowing" can be obtained directly through the Internet, and the Internet is much faster and more effective than bookstores.

The author gives such a picture in the book to illustrate.

Freud's iceberg theory holds that human psychology and spirit are like an iceberg, and only a small part (one-eighth) of consciousness floats on the water. People have clear cognition and awareness of this part, but the rest Seven-eighths of the submerged subconscious is dominated by people’s repressed, unfamiliar, and unexplored subconscious. Borrowing a diagram similar to the Iceberg Theory, Shima Koichiro believes that human desires can be divided into parts that have been "literalized" and "unliterary" parts. The "literalized" desire basically knows what it needs, but the "unliterary" desire will not know what it wants unless it is attracted and noticed.

To put it bluntly, visiting a bookstore is stimulating yourself to explore the unknown part of yourself. It is also the goal that bookstore operators must find ways to develop and excavate, and lead readers to explore the relationship between different things and activities through various activities and designs. Therefore, the author mentioned that the process of visiting a bookstore is "the process of discovering desire", and "a bookstore is a place to meet useless things", and found that he was originally interested in a certain aspect of things, and discovered things in certain fields and Your own interests have some origins or connections, etc. Especially in the era of more and more emphasis on cross-domain or "slash". The useless/useful dichotomy has slowly faded away, as useless knowledge, while it may seem useless now, can become a source of creativity later. So on the contrary, only when the two complement each other can life be fun.

What are the ways to go to bookstores and read books?

Finally, "The Bookstore's Counterattack" also talks about how ordinary people can go to bookstores and read books. As I said before, the author first believes that the most important thing about "going around" is not to have too specific purposes. Secondly, the author believes that there are three ways of shopping for reference.

(1) First, see how the books you already own or like are placed in the bookstore, including which books are placed next to them.

(2) Go to the book section of the genre that you don't usually go to.

(3) Pay attention to the books placed beside the cash register and the counter.

It will be interesting to compare the furnishings of different bookstores in these three ways. Because I can understand how people who run bookstores think about the relationship between these books (including whether they choose books carefully). At the same time, Koichiro Shima believes that by practicing combining unexpected information in bookstores, people can get a lot of different and creative ideas.

Many people often think that after buying a book, they should sit tight and read it, just like studying or reading a textbook. If you don't read it, you will feel guilty. But Shima Koichiro took a very relaxed attitude towards reading.

Leaving aside those specialized books that are really meant for study or research. Shima Koichiro believes that the act of buying a book is essentially an act of wanting to "mark" the information that he saw at the time and that he was interested in and had special feelings for. It is a decision made in response to some inner change. When reading a book, you only need to read the parts that you are interested in and can generate ideas. If you really can’t read the other parts, you think it’s too hard or too irrelevant, you can stop here, that is, don’t let the idea of reading a book affect you pressure. That will only make people less interested in reading books. In other words, the simplest motivation for reading books is to look back to understand, explore, and promote one's own development. Therefore, the author encourages people to read several books at the same time (it doesn't matter if they read them all), because inexplicably they will find that many things can be linked together, giving people a new understanding. In addition, when reading, people are also encouraged to use sticky notes or record their thoughts on the pages of the book, and even drawing pictures does not matter, as long as it can help readers memorize, conceive their ideas, and feelings, whatever they think while reading The traces left are valuable.

That's why the subtitle of this book is: "Walking to Bookstores, Looking for Ideas".

Conclusion: Cherish every encounter with books

In conclusion, this book is very interesting. The speech is not difficult, it is very natural and smooth. The author is indeed a person who loves to visit bookstores. He often cites various knowledge (for example, the birth of Mentaiko is related to Michelangelo), celebrity quotes, deeds in the business world, etc. to lead readers to read freely and absorb his thoughts on reading and bookstores , very easy.

"Cherish every encounter with books" does not mean that you take reading seriously, but that people pay attention to the feelings and thoughts that each book brings when reading, and feel free to use the information the book conveys to you.

If you are just an average person who likes to read books, this book can make you think back and think about the fun when you go to the bookstore and read books, and help you understand the relationship between reading and you. If you are interested in bookstore management, this book can also give you some help, help you think and analyze the way of running a bookstore and the relationship between bookstores and people.

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