Books Without Borders

National Review Online ^ | 7/22/11 | Rich Lowry

[wolfman23601]

Call me old school, but I much prefer the physical book. I hope Barnes and Noble and Books a Million don’t go the way of Boarders and the whole video rental industry. I know you can still get stuff online, but sometimes you don’t know what you want and it takes browsing or something catches your eye that you weren’t looking for. It sucks that you can’t rent a DVD anymore without ordering online and waiting a few days for it to come or using a Red Box with little selection.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

You have to have a heart of stone not to feel a pang of sadness at the passing of the bookstore Borders

I must have a heart of stone then because I'm glad they are going under. I remember the stories about Borders employees trashing Sarah Palin's book and not displaying it in urban areas (or displaying it with negative commentary). Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[NewHampshireDuo]

I patronize the local booksellers for regional books and some of the better known books. I go to Amazon for the hard to find stuff and convenience. B&N is fine for many things and great to browse through. Only one Borders in the general area but seemed a second to B&N.

[ltc8k6]

BAM is supposedly trying to buy a few dozen Borders book stores to keep them operating.

Waldenbooks is part of Borders, so it’s gone too.

[BikerJoe]

I'll miss Borders because I would occasionally purchase foreign language magazines there. B&N doesn't carry them, now leaving only a local univerisity book center, but it's not convenient to get to.

Oh well, guess I'll just have to use the web...

[wolfman23601]

I am a Historical Fiction war freak and I am not interested in books on the World Wars, Vietnam, or really any thing post renaissance. There aren’t that many of these books and they do not have their on genre in any physical or online bookstore. They are stuck in there with all the other fiction. Since I have been reading for years, the only way to find something new is to walk the aisles and look for a cover with a warlord or knight donning a sword and shield. Even the historical fiction message boards online are geared not toward my liking, but more toward romance and gossip (ie. gossip on the court of Henry VIII).

[Talisker]

I must have a heart of stone then because I'm glad they are going under. I remember the stories about Borders employees trashing Sarah Palin's book and not displaying it in urban areas (or displaying it with negative commentary). Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Borders exploded in the 90's and kept on all the way up to the last presidential campaign, as a very powerful koffee klache meeting place and book/magazine talking points hub for suburban Clintonite soccermoms.

Doesn't seem that the maintaining of that function is desired any longer, LOL.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Hard to put your finger on it but Barnes and Noble simply out-executed Borders. B & N may still go under themselves - time will tell - but Borders didn’t do anything as well as their competition did IMHO.

[swain_forkbeard]

“I must have a heart of stone then...”

Just what I thought. Then I thought,

“Never break, never break, never break, never break, this heart of stone”

[nina0113]

I remember the stories about Borders employees trashing Sarah Palin's book and not displaying it in urban areas (or displaying it with negative commentary).

I always used to enjoy buying conservative books at Borders, though the DC clerks were too professional to let their scorn show. The college kids working at the Fredericksburg store could barely choke theirs back, so it was more fun to shop at that one. I made sure to be extra nice to them, too.

[Ozone34]

B&N doesn't carry them, now leaving only a local univerisity book center, but it's not convenient to get to.

Last year when my daughter and I did our university tour I was surprised to see that just about every major university bookstore was now 'managed' by Barnes & Noble. Years ago when I visited The Harvard Coop for the first time in many years, there was something oddly familiar about the wood trim and title placards; sure enough, B&N had taken over the Coop! Now they've spread just about everywhere.

[RedStateRocker]

I go to the library. One of the few uses of my tax dollars of which I approve.

[miss marmelstein]

Borders sucked. Half the stores were given over to a bad coffee shop. They imitated B&N's sofas and comfy chairs but used hard benches instead. Their literary section was nonexistent (I don't want a trade paperback of Tom Sawyer!) and I don't even want to get into their theatre and film section. Maybe, just maybe, their history and current events section was OK. And the magazine racks.

Give me Barnes and Noble any day. But give me Amazon every day.

[miss marmelstein]

In NYC, Barnes & Noble started out as a college bookstore. The one on 18th street still houses endless textbooks and cheap paperbacks. In the early 70s, that’s where every college kid went to get their cheap Penguin books.

[GenXteacher]

I prefer the physical book myself. I kind of enjoy browsing at a bookstore. That, and when all else fails, you can read without electricity. I buy from Amazon when I want some obscure historical text, or some out-of-print tome that you won’t find on the shelf at B&N, and I shop at some small used bookstores.

[Think free or die]

"Last year when my daughter and I did our university tour I was surprised to see that just about every major university bookstore was now 'managed' by Barnes & Noble."

I found that as well, now that our son is heading to college. It's a smart move by Barnes & Noble. It also means that any gift cards that come our way can be used to help him buy textbooks.

I'll miss Borders. I used to shop at the original store when I was in college, and for years I've enjoyed browsing there for movies or recorded TV shows. They've carried some unusual items that were good gifts for one of my family members.

[discostu]

I’m with you, if new physical books stop being made I stop reading new books. Luckily used book stores and what I already own should keep me in material until I die. E-books just don’t provide many of the pleasures of books, they just provide the content, which is fine but there’s a more to a book than just the content.

[Arm_Bears]

ECON 101: Government exists to pervert the natural workings of the the market. The market always gets the last laugh, though.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Same I here, I too prefer the physical book. That being said bookstores will eventually disappear for several reasons chief among them being the decline in literacy. Given the computer screen with its little ICONS it is not as necessary today for most people to be able to read. Plus I think the neurological make up of younger people has been altered to require a constant change of stimuli, a kaleidoscope if you please. Such a mind will be hard pressed to focus on a book thus reducing the demand.