I was sad to hear about Border's Bookstore's financial problems. Growing up in Bedford, Indiana, my only experience with bookstores was from when there was a small nook in the now defunct Stone City Mall, called Waldenbooks (Actually owned by Borders, as it happens). There are still plenty of Waldenbook store I suppose, but in my opinion they are not bookstores in the truest sense of the word.
I still remember going into the Borders in Bloomington. I walked into the front doors, and the smell of books overwhelmed me. Books, hundreds of books, maybe even thousands of them. Books were everywhere! Not only that, but you could sit in chairs and read! Not the little hard wooden chairs like the ones at the library, but big wide overstuffed chairs that were so big and so comfortable that you could take a nap in one of them. And a couple of people were! People were perusing books and magazines and nobody was rushing them or asking if they planned to buy something. I'd never dreamed of such a place! Now 200 or more of them are closing.
I know that filing bankruptcy does not mean going out of business. Most times when a business files for bankruptcy, it saves them from failing in the long run. Still, 200 stores is a lot of stores, and who know how many lives it will change. People will lose jobs. Many will not find another, and those who do may never find a job that they will like half so well if they are indeed lovers of books.
Of course I've probably helped them along on the road to bankruptcy. I haven't been in a bookstore for a long time. It's too easy to go on Amazon.com or another web site, and order a book to be delivered right to my front door. Nonetheless, there's nothing like going to a real bookstore. My next day off from work, I think I'll just go up to the big city and experience a real bookstore again, before it is too late.
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