Obviously, I never cared about the Really Bad Bookstore, and only went there twice or so, to buy a bestseller that probably was out of stock in one of the other two stores. I frequently visited the Really Good Bookstore. Smaller than the Generally OK Bookstore, but a nice and calm atmosphere and a good selection of books on the shelves. The Generally OK Bookstore was the store to browse for its collection of English books, including the sci-fi and fantasy section, even though it wasn’t that big a collection.

Then the owner of the Really Good Bookstore concluded that he was not really making that much money and anticipated the end of the fixed bookprice, a thing that didn’t happen as to this day, and closed its doors forever, leaving a void in the city.

Then even the Really Bad Bookstore closed its doors, leaving me an all the other booklovers in town with only one option to shop for books: the Generally OK Bookstore.

Time went by and technology progressed. The era of the Online Bookstore arrived and even though I still preferred to browse through printed dead trees, with the smell of ink oozing from every page on each turn, I cought myself ordering books overseas, even though it could take weeks to get them shipped to me. The Generally OK Bookstore didn’t satisfy my needs any longer, because all I could buy directly from the store were the rather popular titles and the books that were a little out of the ordinary needed to be ordered by the bookstore, taking just as long if I would order them myself overseas.

I probably was not the only one buying less at the Generally OK Store (did I mention already that I used to work for this chain of bookstores, in Hengelo?), because the store offered less and less books that were out of the ordinary. Several redecorations of the store must have been in vain. Today I went into the store to actually buy the smell of books, before I’ll become a total e-book convert, and was saddened by the look of the English bookshelves. Not even half of the shelves were filled with books to buy. We barely managed to spend the gift-certificates, because we couldn’t find that many books we like.

And thus The incredible sad story of poor bookstores in Enschede closes in on The very end of the story of poor bookstores in Enschede, because this booklover fears that even the Generally OK Bookstore, even though it’s the only book survivor in this town, might have to close its doors very soon.

(about the number in the title)