We gathered last night as members of a vanishing tribe. As usual we found a table then raced to pull books off the shelves. Every December my book group meets in a book store — a real, brick-and-mortar bookstore — to pick our readings for the coming year. The idea is that we are right there with the books; we can quickly learn whether a title has been published in paperback.

Last night was different. We changed our location, for one thing. Our old Borders is no more. And the Barnes and Noble we chose didn’t have a lot of the books we were after. There were calendars and toys and journals and Nook displays but of books themselves there was a definite lack.

I can’t say I’m surprised. Many of us read on Kindles or iPads. And even I, Luddite that I am, order books online. This revolution is much bigger than us, and I can’t say we didn’t see it coming. But as we said farewell last night I wondered where we’ll meet next year. I hope there will be a bookstore left to host us.

Photo: Renton (WA) Library News