Did Kindle kill the bookstore star?

Remember that '80s song "Video killed the Radio Star"? It was about how the new age of video and MTV could make the radio obsolete. Of course it did change music for ever but do you think it has replaced the radio? The question these days is will the Kindle, ipad and other electronic books make physical books obsolete? How does cheap and easy access to ebooks(electronic books like Kindle) affect the bookstores and libraries? I recently heard John Grisham express his concern, for new authors trying to sell their stories. He feared that as cheap as Walmart, Amazon,Target and others were selling books, that publishers and new authors would not be able to make it. He commented “I’m probably going to be all right — but the aspiring writers are going to have a very hard time getting published”.

I am torn because I have a foot in both camps. You see, I want my cake and I want to eat it too. I love my library. I love to touch, smell, and look at my shelves of books. It is soothing to me. I love to feel the weight of a 300 page novel in my hands while I sit in my favorite chair with my favorite blanket and snuggle down to read. On the other hand I love to slip my sleek, thin, Kindle into my purse, (loaded with 3 new novels) as I head out for vacation, the Dr's office, etc...I also love instantly downloading a new release where ever I am, instead of driving 40 miles to buy it, or waiting for the library to get it.

You see, I am an optimist. I don't think you have to have one or the other. Why do we always feel we have to throw out the old in order to have the new. I believe both ebooks and good old fashion books have a place. After all we didn't stop making hard backed books with the invention of paperback books, right? Kindle, ipad, Nook, ebook...all will change the way we read, but it doesn't have to kill the bookstore. Looking through my polly anna glasses, I see it as another avenue to turn more people on to reading.