The pentagram is already closed for several months and Snowball for a month or two. Frontenac Street tells the story of Snowball and collects about the owner, Pierre Grenier. Although it was known to be more or less sympathetic, personally, my visits to the library and my contacts with him were always pleasant. I liked him because he was one of the few if not only, to offer its customers the texts published by the Institute Indian Civilization which published translations of Lilian Silburn and Abhinavagupta.
At first glance, this seems strange because it is undeniable that the beliefs derived from the new age and spirituality are more popular than ever. I think for example the popularity of December 21, 2012, issue If that were true to Canal Life or the TV series American Medium and so on ... it would have been unthinkable have this type of program twenty years ago. I already addressed this issue in a post titled Warning ... the new age would come or I stressed inter alia the popularity of Eckhart Tolle and attention that talkshows U.S. give Deepak Chopra, John Edward and Sylvia Brown of this world.
So if spiritual books are more popular, why do The Pentagram and Snowball close their doors? There is surely no single explanation, but two of them come to mind.
A, the availability of these books in major bookstores. Unlike the owner of Snowball , I do believe that prices have a big role to play, the books are not generally less at Renaud-Bray. For cons, I remember the early 90s or space allocated to the new age and spirituality in a big box bookstore was about a hundred titles. Go visit one of these libraries today, the new age and spirituality occupy entire blocks and have their own pyramids of books in the middle of the store. Customers abandon the bookstores because they are now they read everywhere ( Jean Coutu, Walmart, Loblaws ).
Two, some big publisher like Lu I have to start massive release of spirituality and new age, even the classic mystics like Autobiography of a Yogi Yogananda of or Initiation of Elizabeth Haich . This affects the small bookstores that recess could boast, and rightfully so, to offer customers much more than best-sellers, and since a very small percentage of the public seeking highly specialized titles ( Steiner, Blavatsky, the Corpus Hermeticum or the Guide for the Perplexed ) they can help the new age bookstore that hard.
People no longer have the chance to be in contact with these books, demand reduction and since the large surface area bookstores still offer a good choice, it affects the bookstores who lose their usefulness quietly. This often happens when a sub-culture merges with popular culture, and this is precisely what is happening with the New Age and Eastern spirituality.
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