PARIS — The death of books and bookselling has been predicted for years. But this year in particular has witnessed a barrage of newspaper and magazine articles about the decline of the American bookstore. The conversation takes place on many fronts: Americans don’t read, as the World Culture Index suggests, or the bookstore has been undercut by Amazon, or, as The New York Times wrote in March, bookstores aren’t economically viable because of rising rents.

In France, in spite of rent, corporate competition and the economic crisis, large numbers of independent bookstores continue to exist — roughly 3,000, which is double the amount in countries like the U.S., Spain, the U.K. and Germany. Still, things are changing quite rapidly, and according to the voices from within France, the book business here is not as good as the outside world may think.

Like so many things French, much of the media coverage has been in line with the cultural exclusivity that many ascribe to France (women don’t get fat, children don’t throw food, and nobody emails after 6 p.m.). France is misleadingly familiar, and the bookstore is talked about as if it were an economic anomaly — that despite the ongoing disappearance of cultural fabric in cities like New York or London, Paris is somehow immune.

Chain bookstores have faced challenges here, just like in the U.S., and with Virgin, France’s equivalent to Borders, shutting down all of its stores, book buying seems poised to go to one of two extremes: cyber or local. This last year has also witnessed the dissolution of Chapitre, another large chain, which shut down 23 of its 57 stores after it filed for bankruptcy in December 2013. This is good news for the 3,000 independent bookstores of France. (According to a 2012 study, Paris alone has 370 — that’s one bookstore for every 4,000 inhabitants.) These numbers don’t even include all the used-book shops, stationery stores and newsstands, or the ubiquitous emerald-colored “bouquinistes” that have bordered the Seine since the 16th century.

Like France’s national health care, largely financed by taxes, bookstores have a support system to keep them economically and structurally sustainable. (In 2014 alone, Paris plans to invest 9 million euros into the book industry.) But book sales represent 53 percent of cultural products nationwide, and reports say independent bookstores are estimated to account for a 19 percent share of all sales channels in France. Figures such as these are reason enough for the state to continue maintaining a support system for bookstores.