What Do Americans Lose if Bookstores Disappear? More Than You Think

When Minnesota resident Heather Galway needs to liven up a Tuesday, she heads for the closest Barnes and Noble. It means coffee and adult conversation for the stay-at-home mom, but she thinks it’s as good for her kids as any playground.

A voluntary Luddite, Galway, 36, eschews social media, lets her husband handle the email and carries a battered flip phone she refers to as a “dumb” phone.

She also can’t stand ebooks. So while her older son is at daycare, she packs up her 16-month-old daughter in the stroller and takes her to the closest Barnes and Noble for what she calls “real books.”