IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT. (Cover via Amazon)
As more and more people switch from physical media to digital, the marketplace is starting to notice.
Time is reporting that Mega-retailer IKEA has redesigned is classic Billy bookcase:
The storage mavens at IKEA have noticed a shift in what consumers are storing in their bookshelves. After all, a Kindle can hold thousands more books than a wooden tower in the living room. According to The Economist, IKEA will release a new version of its classic BILLY bookshelf next month, one that’s focused less on storing books than storing, well, anything and everything else. The company is finding that customers use their shelves increasingly for “ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffee-table tome,” and less so for reading material.
I’ve got a ton of IKEA Billy bookcases in my house, covering most of the available wall space. Graphic novels, manga, books, DVDs, CDs: my home practically looks like a library, and it’s gotten to the point where we have to be picky about what to keep and what to get rid of.
Just two of my comics bookshelves... (Photo by Mike Hansen)
Where could this end up? With local communities worrying about cuts in their library budgets, and more middle- and upper-class folks buying digital media devices, are we looking at another rich/poor divide – this time, one of access to arts and entertainment?
It’s no wonder so many have turned to illegal copying and filesharing…
Keep supporting your local library, and encourage your librarians to stock graphic novels – GNs are still a huge growth category for library readers, and the more lifelong lovers of reading we have, the more people we have who are literate and appreciative of popular arts.
What do you think?
Related articles
- IKEA Redesigns the Iconic Billy Bookcase: Where Will All the Books Go? (alldaycomics.com)
- More Shelf Porn (alldaycomics.com)
- Ikea’s Billy Bookcase Doesn’t Hold Books Anymore (treehugger.com)
- Ikea’s Billy Bookcase May No Longer House Books (casasugar.com)
- IKEA France Celebrates the 30th B-Day of the Billy Bookcase (casasugar.com)
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