Many of us need something to read, however. It stands to reason that an airline passenger will make use of that which serves the purpose but is small, compact and/or lightweight.
All due apologies to Mr. Frank O'Mahony, but to accuse Ryanair's carry-on limits to a drop-off in summer holidays sales at his bookshops is a head-scratcher.
He admits that e-book sales have risen, and he knews that e-books have cut into his sales of hard copies. Even so, he claims that it's Ryanair that's to blame for a portion of the loss.
Ryanair is akin to a flying bus, with cheap airfares and nothing resembling a single frill. No matter how inexpensive the airfare may be, the economy is still scraping along at the bottom and fewer people are traveling at all. They aren't buying all that many books, either. Knowledge is grand, but food is better if you have to choose between the two.
Even those who can manage a summer holiday aren't buying three or four or five books because they can't afford them, and then pay for a flight and lodging and meals and entertainment on top of that.
What they will buy are e-books, which are much cheaper than their paper versions. Best of all, those five or six books all fit onto a compact e-reader, or that smart phone the tourist is carrying anyway.
And when they get to where they're going, if they find that they have time for leisure, they can download an e-book whenever the mood strikes.
They won't be jetting back to Limerick or Tralee to peruse the stacks at O'Mahoney's.
It isn't Ryanair. It's the changing way in which we obtain and read books.
Not that paper and ink will go away completely. There's nothing like bookshelves filled with volumes to add warmth to a room. But casual reading, impulsive shopping, and the cost savings that accrue from packing light, combine to put added pressure on the bookselling business.
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