Goodbye, Borders :(

Parent Cafe
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<p>I’ve never cared about the container of the book - I’m just interested in the actual information contained within the words. I’ve avoided buying hardcover books since they’re usually more expensive and importantly, bigger and heavier than a paperback. Almost any book I buy I end up donating to the library or giving to someone else since there are very few books I’d read more than once and I’m not interested in a collection of books to gather dust.</p>

<p>An electronic device isn’t as pure as the driven snow from an environmental perspective but I’m quite certain it substantially beats the process it takes to produce and distribute books. </p>

<p>I rarely jump around in a book unless it’s a technical book in which case I prefer to have a soft copy on my laptop where it’s far easier to jump around, search for keywords, extract info, etc. than in a harcopy. Gone are the bookcases and racks of technical manuals and books (most anyway) that I used to have. </p>

<p>Another book that’s gone by the wayside for me (although I likely have a couple still stashed somewhere until I find them and give them away) - a dictionary. </p>

<p>I do subscribe to some magazines since that format can be easier to read in some environments but those are being reduced as well - especially the news magazines - another product past its prime.</p>

<p>I have more success browsing books online where I can see not only the covers but also read some reviews of the book and even download and read the first chapter or two for free and then decide if I want to buy it.</p>

<p>If I happen to finish a book while reading in bed at midnight, it’s really great to be able to find, download, and start reading a new book within a minute or two.</p>

<p>I agree on the points made about educational books although colleges and profs are partly to blame for that. On the subject of education, it’s time to quit breaking our kids’ backs with a bunch of heavy books in backpacks - they should have access to electronic books instead.</p>

<p>I know some people truly like the physical book but it’s clear that it’s going by the wayside and will probably become a niche market for those truly interested in the physical book as much or more than the actual information contained within the book. </p>

<p>Regardless, in the end it’s not the fault of these big bookstores that the small bookstore has disappeared or the fault of the online retailer that the big bookstores have disappeared, etc. - it’s the consumer who ultimately decides. I cast my vote for e-books.</p>

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I was careful when I made the statement and used the key word - ‘traditional’.</p>

<p>I think there’s a use for some libraries but the idea of having row upon row of physical books to loan to people is out of date. Instead there could be (and is at some places) a way for people to ‘check out’ an e-book even if it includes loaning the e-reader. This allows for an unlimited number of books to read and doesn’t require the huge spaces to contain them, spaces that contain plenty of books that are rarely read by anyone. </p>

<p>I think it’s ridiculous when I hear of cities (like San Diego - about $185M proposed) proposing to build huge multi-million dollar libraries at the taxpayer’s expense in this day and age - I think largely as a monument to themselves.</p>

<p>I’ve used the library before but honestly think it’s not a good use of taxpayer dollars in many cases. I think they should charge most people, those who can afford to pay a quarter or dollar to rent the book, for the use of the books and raise their own revenue rather than using tax dollars to pay for all of it. I don’t have a problem subsidizing parts of a library if it were done efficiently and city councils and mayors didn’t decide to build monuments for their own legacies. If the function of some libraries is really a community center then call it that rather than a library. I’d be perfectly happy to be charged some money for a book loan while those who don’t have the means aren’t charged at all for it.</p>

<p>Also past it’s prime - encyclopedias. Does anyone ever buy those anymore? I don’t know if they’re even offered anymore.</p>

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<p>I’m worried that without Borders around Amazon is going to raise prices.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry to see Borders go because for years my son, who is an avid reader, considered a trip to Borders to be a real treat. He loved browsing through the aisles. But same son, grew disappointed with Borders as he got older because he felt the selection of literature was limited and they didn’t carry great translations of books. But it definitely served its purpose. </p>

<p>I have a Kindle. I love the instant gratification of buying what I want and reading immediately, and I like using it for books that are a one-time read. But there are frustrations as well. I’m reading War and Peace right now and would hate to be reading it on a Kindle. I flip back to the footnotes, sometimes to the summaries, I flip forward to the list of characters, I glance down for the translation of French dialogue. I want to read it as an actual book with real print and paper. Oddly enough, none of my kids want or use kindles/e-books and my youngest son is carefully building up his library of classics. There is something about placing a much-loved book on a shelf that a kindle can’t replicate. It’s like having all of your friends where you can see them and touch them.</p>

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<p>Our library is like jonri’s it’s a real community center and does much, much more than loan out books. They are doing there best to keep up with the electronic media too. There are programs for downloading ebooks and music. The computers are always packed. They have a whole section just devoted to job hunting. They have an amazing local history section which I had cause to use recently. They are well worth every penny that gets spent on them, and they spend very, very little. We vote for their budget separately so we could always cut them off if we wanted to. They do a lot of private fundraising as well.</p>

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<p>The closest Borders store is about 2 minutes from my house and I shop there often. I am broken hearted that it is closing :(</p>

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<p>I like borders but they are almost always more expensive then amazon. If i need to go to a bookstore I go to abarnes and noble.</p>

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<p>Jonri. As a member of the board for our little public library thank you! I wish everyone felt as you do. Our library is in a small tourist town. It is busy whenever it is open. There is always a line for computers, printers, etc. You can download electronic books from the web, you can order books from any library in the system for $1.00, we run early language programs for families, summer reading programs for children, writing workshops for young adults, an investors roundtable…the list goes on and on. All of that with lots of private donations, volunteers, and a little bit of county money. as of this year there is no money from the State of California. I would vehemently disagree with anyone who thinks libraries are obsolete.</p>

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<p>Generating more money for the local community is a nice if rather abstract advantage, but is it enough to compensate for higher prices, worse service, and a far worse selection that local stores provide compared to Barnes & Noble? Apparently not.</p>

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<p>Some Boarders were nice, there used to be one near where I live and they had music and readings and reading groups, but they became just like another chain bookstore, and their selection wasn’t great and their staff often were indifferent jerks, skateboard types and the like who I wonder if they even could read, let alone know how to deal with customers. The last of the local bookstores closed a long time ago, though there is a wonderful used bookstore I love to go to:)</p>

<p>As far as libraries go, the problem with charging for books and such to support them, as one poster advocated, is that if you did that it would be the end of libraries, if charged for books versus a free, public supported library would end up complaining and b**** about paying and it would die, which might sound like market forces at work, but it also assumes that everyone in any community have the resources to pay; the poster said they were willing to pay, but unfortunately most people don’t share that attitude, if it doesn’t benefit them, i.e free prices, they won’t support it (kind of like those people who want to cut government spending, except of course for the things they get from the government; those who scream the loudest often are those who get a lot of unacknowledged help). What would happen is those with means would walk away and those who really need the library would be deprived of the resources. Even if all books were digitized (lot easier said then done) there are people who can’t afford internet access or e-readers and might need a place to see digital stuff. One of the reasons Carnegie established free libraries was he knew that many working people of his time could not afford the fees routinely charged as he himself couldn’t afford them. I agree the traditional library of rows of books and so forth is a bit of an anachronism, but a new model still can have value, as others have talked about. Plus some books may never be digitized…btw people talked about the cost of library buildings and such, ever see what the cost of maintaining that kind of storage capability is? Under licenses, libraries have to maintain their own copies of books, digitally or not, and that is pretty space intensive and costly. If their entire holdings are digital, it would be a pretty penny, so digital is not ‘cheap’, even if they put it on cloud computing. </p>

<p>I never thought I would take to digital reading, but I read e-books on my Ipod touch and it is very convient, especially when commuting and enjoy reading. One of the things that does worry me is with e-books you now have the potential where instead of there being any number of publishers, you could have amazon and maybe a few other e-book vendors in effect muscle out the publishers. Among other things, means they could decide what to publish and what not to, much as BN for example does in terms of variety of books they take and also could depress wages for the authors since they wouldn’t have much choice.</p>

<p>I also think e-books are another scam as CD’s were. When CD’s originally came out, they doubled the price of vinyl records, and we were told it was because producing CD’s was expensive, there were limited stamping facilities, etc, but guess what, CD’s became as common as furniture polish, and the prices never came down. With e-books, what astounds me is how expensive some of them are, my wife gets a lot of them, and some of them have prices higher then the paperback edition! Given that with e-books you don’t have printing, you basically just put them up as a digital file and that is it, kind of ridiculous to be charging more for e-book. If there is limited competition with e-books, you could end up paying more for less variety.</p>

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<p>I’d love to have an e-reader of some sort. The problem is most of the books I read are not on them! I’d love to get rid of the massive textbooks and such in favor of a small electronic device…</p>

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<p>After moving from a town with great independent bookstores (Berkeley) I moved to a town with only two bookstores, Borders and Barnes and Noble. Both closed last Christmas. I have always been an avid reader, so I am pretty much forced to browse either online or at the library. Since I read in the bathtub, a Kindle seems like a less than ideal solution (do they make waterp[roof ones?) so I have tripled my visits to the library.
On a positive note, our library now allows unlimited free music downloads and has an awesome DVD library.</p>

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<p>I live near both a Borders and a B&N. My experience at Borders has always been superior. When I had young children, I would shop at borders quite a bit, but over the years, I found that the store had changed and I no longer find as many books that I want at this store. Makes me sad and nostalgic for the ‘old’ days. </p>

<p>And I did appreciate that Borders would offer special discounts and deals just for teachers. The teacher appreciation days at B&N were never as nice. </p>

<p>I am still very sad to hear that Borders will be closing.</p>

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<p>MizzBee - Would your Kindle fit in a gallon-size zip-lock baggie? I know my daughter puts her cell phone in a baggie when she is taking a bubble bath…crazy, I know.</p>

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<p>I hope all bookstores and libraries aren’t on the way out.</p>

<p>When I was small, every time grades came out mom and dad rewarded me (sister wasn’t as into this) with a trip to the bookstore to pick out whatever I wanted. I often came home with three or four books and was done with them in a few days. </p>

<p>And once a week mom would pile all the neighborhood kids into our AstroVan and take us all to the public library, then to McDonald’s for ice cream.</p>

<p>I forgot about libraries until about a year ago, when my best friend and I decided to get Sonoma County library cards. Now we go once a week and I’ve started reading for fun again. I adore it. It’s a great stress reliever and takes my mind off of my hectic college life.</p>

<p>I honestly think my large vocabulary and strong writing skills are a result of being taught to love reading early, and like others have said, trips to bookstores and libraries are something magical for me. I hope they stick around so my children can experience the same thing.</p>

<p>I do enjoy my mom’s Kindle and will probably get one of my own fairly soon, but it’s just not the same thing.</p>

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<p>I adore and try to support the independent bookstores in my town. But somehow Borders was just my kind of place. Open till 10, on a winter night I could go in there alone, and peruse the books on the tables till I found something that fit the need of the moment. It was the book selection on the tables, as well as the sometimes bargains outside that made the place for me. Looking up books on Amazon is not the same sort of process. I also jump around in books, read lots of non fiction for fun, and like the feel of a book in hand. </p>

<p>Borders did support the community in a variety of ways, the holiday book wrapping occasions being the most memorable, and was a great venue for author tours, as well as a place to hang out on occasion. I will miss it. </p>

<p>I also liked the idea that it was a local destination for the whole family. Those big bookstores somehow were a reassurance that reading and knowledge was just as important in the commercial lineup as places to buy socks and TVs.</p>

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<p>I guess it’s good that I told my dad to use up the Border gift cards a month ago…</p>

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<p>eddieodessa-I will try that. I know that a Kindle or Nook will be on DS2012 wish list, since the price of e-textbooks will be much better than most options.</p>

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<p>I tend to patronize the library instead of buying books, so I’m not heartbroken about Borders. Right now I’m trying to sort through my books & donate them to the library. We have more books than shelves.</p>

<p>I prefer to read paper books. But if I traveled a lot, I would definately get an eReader (Nook) or iPad to replace the bulk & weight of a paper book.</p>

<p>One of the most charming libraries I have ever seen was in Concord, MA. It was quite old & had ladders on metal rails to reach the higher shelves. It sent chills down my spine to think that such distinguished writers as Thoreau, Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, etc. may have walked through its doors.</p>

<p>We lived for a few years in a coal mining town where the nearest library was miles away. So the books came to us: every 2-3 weeks, the Bookmobile would come to the grade school so kids would have access to a library. I wonder if they still have Bookmobile programs?</p>

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<p>I find this conversation very interesting, because it seems that a lot of us have this concept that access to well-stocked bookstores with a wide selection is the normal state of affairs. It seems to me that it was only with the advent of the chain bookstores that this became true at all in smaller towns, at least. Before that, you were lucky to have a bookstore at all in a smaller town–there might be a store that sold paperbacks, and the department store might have a book department. The library was the place to go to get books. People (at least in my town) just didn’t buy that many books, especially hardback books.</p>