Want a book? Don’t go to Wal-Mart.

This might be an unfair blanket statement, but I doubt it.

I had to go to a Wal-Mart today, a Super Wal-Mart at that. Naturally an exercise in frustration and infuriation. I decided while I was there, though, I’d pick up a copy of Jesse Ventura’s book American Conspiracies. Best seller, recently release, easy to find, right? Nope. Nothing. No books.

None.

Not even Twilight or some other romance novels. You can always find a Dean Koontz book or something, right? Not anymore.

I already fear for the literacy of the nation, and to see that a very busy Wal-Mart has given up books that tells me most people have as well. If there’s a market, that store will carry anything. There are no books. That means so few people are buying they’ve lost interest even in best sellers, and as much as I’d like to think it’s due to e-readers, it’s not. They’re growing but far from saturating. No, it just means that we’re all going the way of Laredo I fear. At least in the past people read on the internet, but now who bothers to read when there’s YouTube and podcasts?

The written word really may be dead.