All Borders Bookstores closing

[Arsen]

I blame this tragic ending on the following circumstances:

1. The general public not giving a shit about reading anymore. AKA: Becoming ignorant slouches.
2. People "saving money" by downloading books (this has destroyed plenty of mediums, the non working *****) and thus contributing to the downfall of the employment of numerous individuals.
3. Modern generations of children who were raised and taught to believe videogames, online media, and other such form of "storytelling" are of a more modern relevance.

This is truly sad. People can defend E-books all they want. It'll never replace the feeling of having a physical copy of a book in your hand. I will personally never buy a Kindle, E-Reader, or otherwise. Books are now able to be sacrificed to the same fate as music and movies.

Technological Progression < Societal Needs

 

[Febel]

Wait, borders as in ALL borders? Like, everysingle one, everywhere? WHERE WILL I BUY MY BOOKS!?

 

[xxmyhero64xx]

This is so not cool. Without Borders I'll have to go to Barnes and Noble which is not near as fun. I'll have to have a blow out and just buy a bunch of books that I've been meaning to get for a while.

 

[RandallJohn]

I find this depressing. I love books, and this was one of my favorite franchises.

I also hate e-readers, so there's that. :/

You can't replace the smell of a fresh, new book as you open it up. Or the feeling of the pages. That sounds weird all typed out. But I'm sticking to it.

Amen. That's something that can't be replaced by pressing a button to turn a "page."

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

That's very sad to hear. There is a really nice one by my work and I loved. I guess I'll raid it for sales tomorrow as one final hoorah.

 

[Littlee300]

I find this depressing. I love books, and this was one of my favorite franchises.

I also hate e-readers, so there's that. :/

You can't replace the smell of a fresh, new book as you open it up. Or the feeling of the pages. That sounds weird all typed out. But I'm sticking to it.

Amen. That's something that can't be replaced by pressing a button to turn a "page."

*Stares at avatar for 5 minutes*
Oh. Also because of the DRM the buyer may lose them in a few years.

 

[brumley53]

The borders near where I live was selling everything including the shelves and signs... I bought a giant promotional sign for $5... it's completely useless but carrying it around the shopping centre was hilarious.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I'm sad about this. It was my favorite bookstore and I just don't enjoy digital books as much as real ones.

 

[Brandenlk91]

I'm really saddened by this I love having a physical copy of a book, I haven't yet taken a liking to electronic books (even though they are so much more convenient), it's just not the same as having the book in my hand. Borders was my main destination when it came to buying books, I just liked the atmosphere so much better than Barnes and Noble, I guess I don't really have a choice now. Yay for pseudo monopolies....

 

[DesiPrinceX09]

It's been years since I've even stepped into borders, everytime I've gone to a bookstore it's always been barnes and noble (and my mom works there). It's a shame that it's closing down though.

 

[Discord]

Sad Day, Sad

The Borders in my town already closed down and was turned into one half a Pac-Sun Shop and some other clothes shop.

I like Books, I like the feel of book and paper in my hands. I don't think I will never get into the E-reader book thing or the Kindle whatever. But I think the bigger issue is that places where groups of people could meet face to face to study and have intellectual debates/discussions are now gone. There will always be other places (Now for us it's Panera Bread) like Barnes & Noble; But how long until that is gone thanks to the whole "E-Book" thing?

Some Say well there is always online electronic meetings and books; But... That.... GAH!!!

That is exactly my point, somethings should be left to a traditional fashion.


[small]Besides... >.> <.<

Having a bunch of books on shelves in your place makes you look smart

jk[/small]

 

[Tentickles]

I prefer a good paper book in my hands to reading everything electronically. I am sad. So sad.

 

[Nickolai77]

Its the cycle of things. The mega stores crushed and exterminated the local bookstore. Amazon crushes the mega bookstores. Borders is the first to fail. I wouldn't invest in the other players in this area, either. Luckily, boutique bookstores are on the comeback.

Remember when we had local video stores? And they were crushed by Blockbuster? Hollywood video died first, now blockbuster-- crushed by Netflix? I know they're in bankruptcy, but I cant be bothered to find out if they've survived or not.

Yeah that's a good point, things come in circles.

Borders closed down in the UK about two years ago with the recession, in fact until now i had no idea it was actually an American company.

I would put these closures partially down to Kindles and online retailers- personally i don't intend to read an e-book, i just prefer to own a physical copy. I would also own more CD's and actually buy them from stores like HMV (which is also struggling), if HMV actually stocked music i liked and i didn't feel like i was being over-charged for CD's.

Largely though, i think people now have more forms of entertainment than they did in the past: I.e- internet and video games- books are being crowded out of the entertainment market.

 

[RoyalSorceress]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*gasp*OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Borders is the only bookstore near me, this can't be happening!

 

[frizzlebyte]

Depends what one you get. The Kindle uses E-Ink which is as close to paper as you can get without being...well paper. It doesn't have a back light and glare is minimal. By the time I was finished with my first book on it I was able to read it as well as I could a paper book, in some cases better due to the built in dictionary for the occasional word I haven't seen before.

When I was researching which one to get I did look at the Nook and that is closer to what a computer screen is like. I suspect that would take a lot longer to get used to.

Okay, that's actually pretty helpful. Thanks. Well, I guess if paper books ever go totally off the map, an e-reader won't be the end of the world for me. I'd still hate to see all paper books go by the wayside.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

since i got the feeling i personally am responsible for half of amazons annual income, i don't care.

 

[unicron44]

This is really sad news. I remember when the Borders in my town closed in April and it crushed my dad. We used to go there all the time and get some coffee and read some books. My dad reads all the time and always has a book in his hand. I read, not as much as I should/wished, and he always instilled reading into me. When Borders had it's everything must go sale it was awful. All these people were just leeching off the place. We had avoided going until the last day before it closed and he couldn't believe the state of the place. All the money we put into buying books and now it's gone.

I think I'm going to go read a book now. I'm back logged quite a bit and I really want to read more this summer. Yeah that sounds good.

EDIT: There's also a Barnes and Noble in town, but I don't like it as much. It's right next to the mall so if you go there after 7 PM all the mall mice take up seats because the mall closes pretty early here and they just wait around until their parents pick them up. Now I just do most of my book shopping at Half-Price books, which is a smaller chain. There's also an independent bookstore I also go to, it's a little out of the way, but the woman who works there is really nice and knowledgeable.

 

[Polarity27]

So very many mixed feelings.

On one hand, I have more memories related to Borders than any other store in existence. I've spent countless hours sitting on the floor with a pile of books, trying to decide which to get. Back in the '90s when Paganism first started to go more public, 'zines could only get you so far and mall bookstores didn't carry Pagan books (and the nearest proper Pagan store was a long ass drive), and then someone introduced me to Borders. OMG, I felt like I was in heaven. I've spent well over a thousand dollars in that place.

Yeah, I've got a Kindle now, and yes, I can preview a chapter. But it still doesn't beat being able to pick up the book and flip through it long enough to decide if it's something you really want to buy or not. And Borders-- a couple of them especially, until they closed-- were pretty damn good to the Pagan/occult community, you could find books that you'd even have trouble finding at the actual Pagan store if the section manager knew his or her stuff (the one of the managers at the first DC store was a Thelemite, and man knew his books!).

They've made some astonishingly boneheaded moves over the years, and the one or two times I've poked my head into one recently found them to be much diminished, a pale ghost of their former selves. But I'll drink a toast to Borders, for all the vistas their books have opened for me over the years.

 

[Queen Michael]

This is final proof that there is no God. There's so little interest in literacy nowadays that we as a society will allow one of its biggest supporters in the most economically powerful and influential country on Earth to simply wither and die. And please, don't give me crap about the Kindle and Nook and all that bullshit. It's all a completely different and frankly vastly inferior medium.

How? Text is text, right?

 

[pyrokin]

I feel bad about it, I mean, yeah, you can use a kindle, ipad, etc. but it just doesn't feel the same. I also don't particularly care for people who say books are obsolete, I mean what would happen (just a random scenario) if a virus got into say, any of the databases that we keep our histories in? What if it wiped the database? What if we didn't have books on the same histories whilst this happened? There are many different possibilities, problems, and variables that could happen if we didn't have books.