Saturday, January 15, 2011

Books Without Borders

At the Atlantic, Peter Osnos has a great post on the decline of Borders, the Ann Arbor-based bookstore that recently has announced it will delay payments to book publishers for books already purchased. Such unprecedented actions have signaled to many industry observers that Borders may not be from a bankruptcy filing. AnnArbor.com recently interviewed University of Michigan Law School Professor John Pottow on this very topic.

I'm torn on the continued existence of Borders. I'm fairly opposed to chain bookstores, as they have in some instances driven small independent bookstores out of business (no, I haven't yet gotten over the loss of Shaman Drum). On the other hand, bookstores - no matter what kind they are - provide vital services to communities, in my opinion. Growing up in the Detroit suburbs I spent many afternoons reading, browsing, and studying at the Borders on Woodward Avenue. It'd be a shame if Ann Arbor lost another bookstore or if the company was forced to lay off local workers.

2 comments:

  1. Borders stock went up 30% yesterday on news of refinancing. I love book stores, or the idea of book stores, but Amazon is often much less expensive and more convenient.

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  2. If only they would stock more actual books, rather than acres of gift cards, calendars, plush toys, and "books" slapped together out of stock photos and antiquated quotations. When I walk into Nicola's, they almost always have the book I want. Maybe they'd like to move to State and Liberty?

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