TBR (To Be Read): Defend print, but imagine a world without books

SINGAPORE – On Sept 17, I watched my story about the

closure of Times Bookstores’ last outlet in Holland Road

shoot up the charts. Few stories about culture capture the attention of readers as they do when a business goes bust.

My cynical self could not help but think there must be an element of schadenfreude, the very name of Times inspiring puns galore. Times calls time, time’s up, end of times. Why, if so many people are so keen to share their memories in these spaces, have bookshops repeatedly been plagued by low footfall?