An avalanche of closing bookstores?

Let's hope they've got it wrong, but a study by Grant Thornton, as reported in the Chicago Sun Times, predicts that as many as 10,000 US retail stores will close this year. Although bookstores represent only a "fraction" of that total, it is expected that their closings will jump 500% from last year, which would mean the shuttering of an additional 400 US bookstores.

It isn't that people aren't reading, points out the Book Blog at ReadersRead.com. "Overworked and underpaid librarians" are reporting that library attendance is "way up."

That's the good news. The bad news is: "As consumers cut back on entertainment purchases, books sales continue to decline."

You can see the entire Grant Thornton retail study here.