Borders Bookstore moves to close

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

I, too adore books. I love the feel of a book in my hands, the smell of an old book. I collect antique books. I have a series of books printed in the 1860s. I have two Bibles from 1830 and 1847.

I can read them whenever I want. Don't need batteries!

Border's didn't die because of Kindle or people not reading, they died because they expanded too fast. They focused on the coffee shop aspect over the reading aspect. They got put out of business by amazon and its ilk.

The written letter is a lost art form. These will be considered the dark ages by future historians as there will be little of day to day correspondence to study. E-mails, PMs, Tweets will all be gone.

We have never said more with less to communicate.

 

[AK Michelle]

I love to read and to write. When I write, it's longhand - with a pen that flows nicely so I can not be distracted by scratching or skipping. I have a typewriter and my kids know how to use it. Not because I make them but because they think it's cool. It's an old manual that I have been hauling around for decades, works perfectly in spite of the blemishes on the hard case it lives in.

One of the reasons we bought this house is because of the perfect nook, just waiting for custom shelves to be built so all our many books will finally have a home. It is one of our dreams you see, to have a library of our own making. A little village where all our favorite friends live.

My teenage daughter is the true definition of bookworm, she devours books, over 1,000 pages a day sometimes. She reads anything in print, the classics, the sagas, comic books, and even the car manual. I bought her a Kindle for her recent birthday, but even so, she has some books she just has to have in hardback, some that are acceptable in paperback (if the cover art is still worthy) but for travel and school, she will use her kindle. It's hard taking enough real books to last her a week.

We miss our local Borders, we still have Barnes & Noble and a few local - small town bookstores. We don't usually order books online, for us it's not about the price, it's about what grabs us, which book touches us and asks to be taken home and read. Besides, everyone knows, it's much easier to be grabbed when you can be touched.

Some people will read this topic and think "Wow, Borders is closing? That's sucks for them". But it's a great reminder that we should think about local commerce. Be sure to patronize the local shops, it keeps your friends and neighbors employed, supports your local economy and in offers much better conversation than you will ever find on Amazon.com. Besides, you want that shop to still be there when you really need them, right?

 

[mamawolf544]

I have a Kindle and I love it.
But I have an extensive library of Stephen King books, all hardbacks. Every book except the Dark Tower series which I did not enjoy.
I buy all the Sookie Stackhouse books, not Kindle, real books that the series True Blood was made from.
I love books, but I read books I never would have read on my Kindle, Water for Elephants.
I am 50 years old and I have King books from when I was a teen.

As far as writing goes, my 14 yr old GD was taught one 6 week period how to cursive write. My 11 almost 12 yr old GD was not taught at all.
And we are being told that with technology, soon children will be taught soley on the computer. I always wonder how they will sign their name???

 

[speckledhen]

I love books. Love the library-what a wonderful public service that is! I'm afraid they'll be gone soon. As a child, I used to read ten books a week, then go get ten more. Loved writing stories in longhand. Nice handwriting is a dying art, whereas it used to be a daily necessity. Sad, sad, sad.

 

[gryeyes]

Obsessive reader, here. Books are wonderful. Really wonderful. I have bookcases full of my favorites. Nothing will replace those books.

BUT I do love my Kindle, because if I see a book someone else is reading, just out anywhere, I can find it in the Kindle store and download it like THAT... without going anywhere to buy it. And if I don't like it enough to keep it, no biggie. Poof, it's gone!

It's easy to transport and holds a zillion books. It's a dream to read ANYWHERE. I even have the Kindle app on my iPhone, so I can sneak a read places where I might not have brought my Kindle.

Borders stores were nice, B&N stores are nice, WaldenBooks - haven't seen many of those around lately, now that I think of it - and libraries are FANTASTIC.

 

[Tanichca]

I love reading real books, for the practical reason that i have bad eyes and all the light from an iPad/Kindle hurts my vision. But I also love the feel of paper slipping through my fingers, the smell of an old book, the curve of the letters... reading is, was, and always will be my favorite pastime. I learned to read before all my other siblings (i was five) and by the time I was eight, i was reading at a high school level. Even now, years later, I still very much enjoy it. I do hope books never go out of "fashion!!!"

 

[FourPawz]

We haven't had a local Borders store for years. Originally we had Walden Books, which got swallowed by Borders. They shut down, leaving us with Barnes & Noble, which is a good place to browse and to buy. Amazon has revolutionized the way we buy books, both hard copy and digital. I buy more and more books used from eBay or from local used book shops.

We've had a locally owned store for decades that's still doing fine. The employees are like old friends, and the inventory is well thought out.

It's sad when a national chain gives up the ghost. I've heard rumors that we may not have Sears past 2012. Denny's, Wendy's and a number of other corporations are holding on by their fingernails.

 

[welsummerchicks]

Borders is going away, not books.

This I think was due to bad management alone and not some failure of people to want to buy books. After Kmart bought Borders, they proceeded to destroy it.

The business did rather well while it was managed with more of an interest in keeping it going than in removing competition for Kmart's business.

Most businesses start to fall apart after 20 or so years. The market situation the original business was founded on starts to change and management doesn't get on the ball quick enough, another competitor copies their ideas and undercuts them, or some competitor buys them in order to dismantle them.

 

[speckledhen]

I do think that books will eventually die off and be just something in antique stores, though that may be years away yet. Of course, Kindle isn't new. Gene Roddenberry invented that.

 

[cupman]

I read an article awhile back about a college that was considering changing all their required textbooks to be ones available through the kindle and other devices like it. The idea behind it being you can buy a textbook for nickels on the dollar. I bought a science book about 6 months ago for my college classes and the book was $180. I used the book to study for the final and really that was it. I paid $180 for a book I used for 5 hours over the course of 11 weeks. No justification for that, either use the book thoroughly or pick a book that costs us less than $50.