By Kaetlyn Cordingley

In:Site Staff Reporter

With the advent of efficient pocket-sized technology and online information readily accessible, bookstores are changing their business models to compete in a world where hearing a story or reading a summary is just plain easy.

The latest “threat,” Amazon’s Kindle, has not yet posed a serious threat to Seattle booksellers, said Bryan Pearce, CEO of the University Book Store. But the Internet, the leisurely information trove, has altered the business model by allowing people to buy books at a much cheaper price.

The Kindle 1, a portable electronic reader, debuted in November 2007 as a revolution in e-reading. But it has not yet lived up to its hype due to high prices and limited practicality for research and reference, according to many Kindle reviewers.

Books seem to extend infinitely at Magus Books.

“The book is a physical object – you can move through it, skimming for notes and important points – and there is something in our education that gives us a sense of space inside a book,” said John Biggs, on CrunchGear. “The Kindle is not conducive to that kind of mental map-making… yet.”

The most recent version, the Kindle DX, has a larger screen for textbook and newspaper reading and is scheduled for public release this fall. The Kindle 1 sold successfully on Amazon.com and according to Engadget, sold out in its first five-and-a-half hours and remained out-of-stock until the following April.

Hanna McElroy and her husband Chris own Magus Books, Seattle’s oldest used bookstore. She does not predict any great changes in reading habits due to the Kindle or anything like it, such as iPhone applications or Sony E-Readers.

Pearce agreed, saying the Kindle does not make sense for all reading.

Much of the perceived stability in the book industry comes from the impracticality of using the Kindle for all recreational reading, Pearce.

“There will always be a market for children’s books,” said Pearce. “No one wants to cuddle up to read to his child with a Kindle.”

Still, while he does not see the Kindle as a threat to his business he ad

mits the popularity of delivering content via books is on the decline. Not all genres are as safe as children’s books, said Pearce.

Nonfiction books, in particular, are struggling in sales, Pearce said. There is so much available online that people are not interested in reading an entire book on one topic because so much condensed information is available on the Web, he said.

This ease of accessibility of Internet literature has resulted in an increase in popularity of E-books and audio books, according to Pearce. He noticed that people want to be entertained en route to work and are therefore uploading an audio book onto an iPod, a quick and easy way to explore a new world while commuting in the real one.

The Internet has forced local booksellers, like the McElroy’s shop, to venture online to avoid becoming one of many little used bookstores annihilated by technology. Magus has 80,000 books in-store and has 8,000 of their more expensive books and textbooks online for sale at any given time.

Vines cover the exterior of Seattle's oldest used bookstore.

“To have a bricks and mortar store, you have to be able to do things online,” said McElroy of the changing market.

The ability to change with the times is key, said McElroy. Just as Magus opted to move online to keep their business model fresh, the University Book Store decided to sell used books to combat both the high prices of new books and Washington’s high sales tax.

According to Pearce, marketplaces such as Amazon.com and the smaller Abebooks.com have allowed individuals to do business with each other with each other, eliminating the need for a corporation, like the University Book Store to act as a third party.

In response, the University Book Store started buying and selling used books with the help of Portland-based Powell’s Books. Used books, Pearce said, have become one of their fastest growing sales items.

Booksellers will continue to accommodate any direction books take to keep people reading, or listening.

“This is about creating a community around literature, that is what we are all about,” said Pearce. “We’re not scared of anything.”