Ann Patchett On Colbert Report: 'We Had No Bookstores' (VIDEO)

Last night, Ann Patchett appeared on "The Colbert Report" to defend physical bookstores everywhere.

Colbert introduced her by praising the amount of work she has accomplished. She is the author of both fiction and non-fiction. She won the PEN/Faulkner Award for "Bel Canto" in 2002. Her latest endeavor is being the co-owner of Nashville, Tennessee bookstore Parnassus Books.

Colbert opened with the question, "Why would a writer open a bookstore?" Patchett relayed that the two big bookstores in Nashville closed down.

When Patchett's newest book, "State of Wonder," came out, people called her asking where they could buy the book. Patchett said, "They had to go to the alteration shop to buy my book. We had NO bookstores."

Despite competition from Amazon and the demise of Nashville's other bookstores, Patchett doesn't worry. She believes the industry has come full circle. "Suddenly," she said, "People are waking up and going, 'But I want to have some place to take my kids for story hour on Saturday. I want to have someplace to go to book club and see an author read.'"

Colbert later asked, "What can I get from a local bookstore that I cannot get from shopping online?"

Patchett quickly replied, "Smart people...we have so many smart people working in our store. You come in, you tell us what you just read, what you liked, I'll tell you what you should read next." She followed with, "If you never, ever talk to people and you meet all of your needs on the Internet, you wake up one day and you're the unabomber."

If book buyers remain unconvinced (even after the unabomber bit), Patchett has something else to offer. At the end, she noted, "If you buy 'State of Wonder' on parnassusbooks.net you can get it signed." Well, that's something you're definitely not guaranteed on Amazon.

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Comments

[Olderandwiser55]

01:11 PM on 02/23/2012

I think she's right about this being a good time for small bookstores-especially ones where people are actually there to provide customer service.

That said, Amazon can co-exist....Bel Canto from 2001 in Kindle edition (at amazon) is $12.99. Ann, that's because of you and your publisher. Used copies start at $.01 from independent booksellers that sell on amazon. At Parnassus, her Bel Canto paperback is $14.99.

[Veluriel]

12:16 AM on 02/23/2012

"WATCH Ann Patchett: Can Online Shopping Make You The Unabomber?"

HuffPo, you really need to work on your hooks. This one was terrible.

What she was talking about was the fact that more and more people are eschewing face-to-face interaction. They're substituting online or texting for all of their communication. They're losing the ability to really communicate with each other.

She never said that "online shopping could make you the unabomber."
Shameless sensationalism.

[starbright]

06:49 PM on 02/22/2012

Good for her for opening a bookstore, however I'm not sure she understands where all of her competition resides. She said, "People are waking up and going, 'But I want to have some place to take my kids for story hour on Saturday. I want to have someplace to go to book club and see an author read.'" Has she never been in a library?

[QueenOfViolets]

04:49 PM on 02/22/2012

""If you never, ever talk to people and you meet all of your needs on the Internet, you wake up one day and you're the unabomber.""

I'm a big fan of Ann's, and I loved "State of Wonder," but -- Ann, dear -- the Unabomer was even more anti-technology that you are, and he was raised in the 1950s when there was no Internet and there were wonderful bookstores all over the country.

[Debbie Hemmeter]

10:24 AM on 02/22/2012

State of Wonder was phenomenal! I enjoy all her stuff. And Colbert of course is a treasure!

[QueenOfViolets]

04:50 PM on 02/22/2012

It's sad that she hates computer nerds, though, and projects terrorism and mental illness on them.

[MBGarcia]

08:38 PM on 02/21/2012

She was funny and on point...we do want bookstores where we can go and find someone knowledgeable. We want to be out and about and remember what it was like before everyone walked with a phone attached to their ear, books were compressed into tiny screens and people communicated only via electronic devices... If I find myself in Nashville, I'll shop at Parnassus; for now I'll just find one of her books and read it...not online!

[phantomminuet]

05:51 PM on 02/21/2012

She was really delightful in that interview.