RIP Borders
This was supposed to go up earlier, but then, well, the DDoS happened and all. So.
The news brook a little over a week ago that Borders is closing down for good. Not just a few of the smaller stores, but all of them everywhere. Some people don't care, but Waldenbooks (and by extension Borders) was my favorite chain bookstore for a long time and I have many fond memories of it. I was heartbroken when the location by Water Tower Place, the largest Borders I've ever been in, went out of business last Christmas due to a lease issue. Maybe it's just as well that store disappeared before the rest started to die.
Chicago was hit pretty hard when Borders closed its first batch of locations a few months ago. A city that once had at least four stores (that I'm aware of) was down to a single one. That last one was my shining beacon downtown. It was the store I went to on my first trip to Chicago and all subsequent trips after, serving as a Meeting Point when family split up. It was a place to escape to between classes. It was the place that carried the occasional rarer title, that kept hardcovers around even after the paperback was out, and that never lacked a non-obscure title. (Also, let's not deny it, it was one of the very few places downtown that had public restrooms, which made it a lifesaver. At least the new mall a block away has that covered now.)
Barnes & Noble and I have never gotten along that well. They put my precious local Waldenbooks out of business when I was a wee teenager and they never felt like they had as good of a selection. They also drove me up the wall the first time I had to shop there, as they split the manga into three separate sections (manga, teen, and children). Its atmosphere has grown on me, but just a few days ago I ventured to the nearest store and couldn't find Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! or Pratchett and Gaiman's Good Omens, titles which Borders is never without. It was depressing to think this is the bookstore I have to turn to when I want to get a book offline.
Even I can't deny Borders had its problems. It wasn't as calm and welcoming as B&N goes out of its way to be. It sometimes even felt a little rushed and crowded, especially downtown. Its online store was notoriously bad and couldn't compete with Amazon or B&N.com. Even the Kobo couldn't keep up with current technology and looked laughable with its lengthy design and single button when compared to the Kindle 3 or Nook.
(Side note: Speaking of the Kobo, it is not being dragged down with Borders. Borders just worked with it a lot and was its main American distributor. I'm sure a lot of things will change now, but if anyone was interested in the Kobo before, I hope the Borders bankruptcy doesn't discourage them. I saw the new Kobo Touch in person recently and it has vastly improved over the original device.)
I don't think anyone can say we didn't see this coming, but I hoped against it anyway. I held out hope through every rumor, every news site proclaiming their doom, until finally the Borders newsletter broke the news that they were officially gone.
I suppose this would be a good opportunity to start forging a relationship with a small bookstore. Right now, I just don't have the heart to get attached to another store. I grew up in Waldenbooks. I discovered manga there, when I happened to wander in and pick up the first Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow book. I finished collecting many of CLAMP's series at that store and was such a regular that the employees knew me. I traveled an hour to Sioux Falls every few weeks to visit another Waldenbooks when mine went out of business. Visiting a Borders was one of the highlights of every trip to Omaha, Lincoln, or Chicago, because it was a Waldenbooks except bigger. Living walking distance from a Borders was one of my favorite things about my apartment building.
I keep hoping they'll pull a Circuit City and return with no warning someday in a year or two, but even if they do, they'd probably only revive a website. If I don't make it to a liquidation sale, I may never again see a Borders. I'm going to miss them.
The news brook a little over a week ago that Borders is closing down for good. Not just a few of the smaller stores, but all of them everywhere. Some people don't care, but Waldenbooks (and by extension Borders) was my favorite chain bookstore for a long time and I have many fond memories of it. I was heartbroken when the location by Water Tower Place, the largest Borders I've ever been in, went out of business last Christmas due to a lease issue. Maybe it's just as well that store disappeared before the rest started to die.
Chicago was hit pretty hard when Borders closed its first batch of locations a few months ago. A city that once had at least four stores (that I'm aware of) was down to a single one. That last one was my shining beacon downtown. It was the store I went to on my first trip to Chicago and all subsequent trips after, serving as a Meeting Point when family split up. It was a place to escape to between classes. It was the place that carried the occasional rarer title, that kept hardcovers around even after the paperback was out, and that never lacked a non-obscure title. (Also, let's not deny it, it was one of the very few places downtown that had public restrooms, which made it a lifesaver. At least the new mall a block away has that covered now.)
Barnes & Noble and I have never gotten along that well. They put my precious local Waldenbooks out of business when I was a wee teenager and they never felt like they had as good of a selection. They also drove me up the wall the first time I had to shop there, as they split the manga into three separate sections (manga, teen, and children). Its atmosphere has grown on me, but just a few days ago I ventured to the nearest store and couldn't find Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! or Pratchett and Gaiman's Good Omens, titles which Borders is never without. It was depressing to think this is the bookstore I have to turn to when I want to get a book offline.
Even I can't deny Borders had its problems. It wasn't as calm and welcoming as B&N goes out of its way to be. It sometimes even felt a little rushed and crowded, especially downtown. Its online store was notoriously bad and couldn't compete with Amazon or B&N.com. Even the Kobo couldn't keep up with current technology and looked laughable with its lengthy design and single button when compared to the Kindle 3 or Nook.
(Side note: Speaking of the Kobo, it is not being dragged down with Borders. Borders just worked with it a lot and was its main American distributor. I'm sure a lot of things will change now, but if anyone was interested in the Kobo before, I hope the Borders bankruptcy doesn't discourage them. I saw the new Kobo Touch in person recently and it has vastly improved over the original device.)
I don't think anyone can say we didn't see this coming, but I hoped against it anyway. I held out hope through every rumor, every news site proclaiming their doom, until finally the Borders newsletter broke the news that they were officially gone.
I suppose this would be a good opportunity to start forging a relationship with a small bookstore. Right now, I just don't have the heart to get attached to another store. I grew up in Waldenbooks. I discovered manga there, when I happened to wander in and pick up the first Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow book. I finished collecting many of CLAMP's series at that store and was such a regular that the employees knew me. I traveled an hour to Sioux Falls every few weeks to visit another Waldenbooks when mine went out of business. Visiting a Borders was one of the highlights of every trip to Omaha, Lincoln, or Chicago, because it was a Waldenbooks except bigger. Living walking distance from a Borders was one of my favorite things about my apartment building.
I keep hoping they'll pull a Circuit City and return with no warning someday in a year or two, but even if they do, they'd probably only revive a website. If I don't make it to a liquidation sale, I may never again see a Borders. I'm going to miss them.