The challenge facing bookstores was not a new one, but I believe another nail in the coffin was struck by the iPad, the last invention of Apple.

"Washington resembles Istanbul in summer and Ankara in winter," people say. But this summer in Washington DC, the capital of the United States of America, is a bit different. The weather is very hot and humid. You feel the urge to change your clothes after a fifteen minute walk. I had not been in the city for a year. This time I witnessed an unexpected change. I saw that the bookstores that I used to visit so often and had memorized the locations of were either closed or about to be closed. You eagerly walk, saying "Borders must be just next to the corner" and come up with an empty store. This is like the demolition of the temples of booklovers. It is sad. Bookstores are disappearing just like other old professions, such as cotton fluffing. Let me tell you how.

When I was a kid in Bursa, cotton fluffers used to visit neighborhoods. They were an indispensible part of the spring cleaning. Back then, mattresses were produced with a different technology. Mattresses, pillows and blankets were made of cotton. During the spring cleaning, cotton fluffers fluffed the cotton that flattened as you slept on it. This way the mattresses would become softer and well-rounded. Then, technology changed and the cotton-filled mattresses disappeared. So did the cotton fluffers. The change in the technology put the fluffers in the anthology of extinct professions. Their skills set started to make no money. So, my first impression in Washington was that bookstores are about to join the cotton fluffers.

The challenge facing bookstores is not a new one, but I believe another nail in the coffin has been struck by the iPad, the last invention of Apple. The number of independent bookstores in the US decreased from 3250 in 1999 to 1400 in 2009. These were gradually replaced by bookstore chains such as Borders and Barnes & Nobles. The general phenomenon facing the retail sector applies also to independent bookstores. Heroic small stores have always felt the pressure of  supermarkets throughout the world. Now it appears that bookstore chains also have started to close their stores one by one. That is, the supermarkets of the book distribution sector also are becoming history. This is exactly what I tried to imply, saying that "bookstores are becoming history."

So, let me tell you what has happened in the meantime. First, the book industry started to focus on electronic commerce. We started to order hard copies of books online. The production stage did not change, but the channel of distribution started to alter. I have been using www.amazon.com to order books for a long time now. They somehow find and send the books right to my desk in just a couple of days. Moreover, I read the detailed comments about the books I am planning to buy online. In the past in Bursa, I used to hear the comments from the booksellers.

What is more, Amazon is not the only supplier in this sector. It used to own 95 percent of all electronic book commerce, but now its share has decreased to 30 percent. Secondly, technological advances have changed the production stage of the book as an industrial good. The world started to shift from printed books to electronic books when the electronic book giant Amazon introduced the Kindle, in 2009. Amazon announced that as of July 2010, they had sold 140 electronic books for every 100 printed books. The electronic book market was still small, but 60 percent of the new sales were composed of those instead of printed books. By early 2011, the victory of the electronic book was certified. Meanwhile, technology took another huge step: Apple introduced the iPad in July 2010. Then what happened? Surfing on the Internet ceased to be ceremonial and rapidly became democratic. It became much easier both to access electronic books and to read them while lying down. The iPad or the tablet PCs actually are reading devices, but they offer more applications compared to the one-purpose Kindle. In the end, those roaming in the bookstores have started to download electronic books to their iPads right in the store. The devices have conquered the days of "How am I supposed to carry that giant book."

What about the printing houses? They are quite happy. The sunken profits in the book printing business sector have surged thanks to the technology. Bookstores, on the other hand, will have to follow the cotton fluffers.

Have you noticed that expressing an opinion also has been following this path? In line with this, I say "no need for trouble" and undertake no risks about the future following the advice of the Honorable Prime Minister of Turkey. Unbelievable!

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 03.06.2011