Comments | demonqueen666: As if a million voices cried out and were suddenly silenced.

demonqueen666

As if a million voices cried out and were suddenly silenced.

Feb 17, 2011 12:49

Wait, so not only is Joseph Beth gone, but now Borders is filing for bankruptcy too??

Despite the fact that I'm sure the truth is far more complicated, my kneejerk reaction is I want to blame this entirely on the Kindle.

tears for my fears, emphasis on the wrong syllable, books, frustrations, tastes like despair, bad news, i can't believe that just happened, news, i don't get you people, reading, reality, because god hates me, the big no

Comments 7

devida February 17 2011, 18:29:18 UTC

Borders folded in the Uk last year. they even sold the shelves in the end. real yard sale.
i don't think Kindle's the issue, more like amazon and the cheap book sites.
i dunno, everyone i know still reads like bastards, and i'm in and out of Waterstones (UK branch) and Barnes & Nobel when i'm in NYC all the time.
shame.. :(

lanna_kitty February 17 2011, 18:36:42 UTC

My understanding is that Borders has been headed this way for awhile now because of Barnes and Nobel holding a larger market share and because of Amazon.com (and not just their Kindle product but the years of attrition due to their ability to sell books more cheaply). B&N is having issues too with their brick and mortar stores :-/

meridian_rose February 17 2011, 19:24:11 UTC

Agreeing with the others; Borders in the UK was very expensive too, especially for non-book items like DVDs, and unless they were doing offers on the books [two for x, etx] I never shopped there. Also I don't have an ebook and until they improve in terms of size and style and price I don't ever intend to [I want it to be the size of a paperback, I want a screen the size of a page, pref a double page spread when it opens out, more like a book than an iphone or something] but I never buy from Waterstones anymore ( ... )

devida February 18 2011, 06:25:10 UTC

Ottakers folded? awww.. i got a lot of my college textbooks there back in 2000. Shame.
I agree with the ease and price of online book buying, but the one thing I can't do online is just .. browse. You know just put the legs on autopilot and wander round the place picking up random stuff. I can do that in Waterstones, then I go and buy the same book cheap on Amazon so i guess I'm having the best of both worlds.
But.. books are pricey. and my biggest splurge vice i think. either books or shoes.

meridian_rose February 18 2011, 07:47:36 UTC

All the Ottakers I know of closed :( It was a nice store because it had a more eclectic selection of book.
You're right about browsing. Online searching does make you more focussed on specific authors/titles/subjects. Then again if I do wander around Waterstones I end up thinking 'so many books I can't afford :P"! Browsing in a bookstore reminds of me of part of the reason I love books more than any idea of an ebook; the tactile sensation, the smell, the overall physicality of a book, the random flicking through pages...not the same on a screen at all.

devida February 18 2011, 18:14:50 UTC

there's a place called The Book Barn down in the South West that is, what the name implies a BIG warehouse full of second-hand books on everything. there's some good deals too (e.g. 5 paperbacks for £5) but many of the books are old editions from the seventies and eighties. and they really smell of that 'old book smell'. it's almost like geeky time-travel, looking back at a snapshot of the world when you weren't even born.

supersyncspaz7 February 17 2011, 20:00:00 UTC

I don't want to imagine a world without Borders' coupons. :|