Holy crap, This Just In: Bookstores are closing all over the place -- Borders has filed for bankruptcy & is planning to close some 200 stores in the next few weeks, including 1 15 miles down the road from me in Gig Harbor, a store that was just built a coupla years ago.... Course I've only been in that store 1nce, so it's not like I'm gonna miss it a whole lot. But still....
I've written here B4 that I used 2 spend enuf $$$ on books & music 2 run a small 3rd-world country. Tho not so much lately. I have 1 pretty good used book store about 2 miles down the road that I visit 1nce or 2wice a month & have been supporting 4 the last 5 years or so -- I've found some very good, suprisingly rare stuff there, & I often drop by just 4 an impulse buy.
But I haven't traveled 2 Tacoma -- where all the really good used book & record stores are -- in over 2 years. Lack of $$$, lack of reliable transportation, not wanting 2 B stuck 30 miles from home if the car breaks down, etc. There's a really great Half-Price Books store there, & 6th Ave. is lined with pretty good used record stores.
But I haven't been able 2 get there. So a lot of my buying has been done thru & a lotta the stuff I review here has been obtained from Amazon.com. They're fast, they're cheap, & I know they'll get stuff 2 me. & only 1nce have I ever had trouble getting stuff I've ordered. & if you don't mind getting stuff 2nd-hand (which I hardly ever mind), their prices often can't B beat.
They don't have everything -- VULTURES OF THE VOID, Philip Harbottle's history of bottom-end pulp science-fiction writing in Britain, isn't available (2 bad, with a title like that you KNOW it can't B bad); & the price they asked 4 Algis Budrys' OUTPOSTS was WAY 2 much -- so if you've got copies of either of those, drop me a line. But this isn't intended as a commercial 4 Amazon....
Do I feel guilty about this? No, not really. I'm on a limited budget, I'm always looking 2 get stuff cheap. & I would love 2 go browse 4 a day in Tacoma if I could afford it & could get there & back reliably.
But it suprises me that Borders would close a brand new store in Gig Harbor, a sorta snooty suburb of Tacoma where there otta B LOTS of people with lotsa discretionary income. At least there seemed like a lotta well-off folks around when I worked there -- lotsa people driving Hummers & BMW's & Escalades & Audis & etc.
Course I know when the economy's down the tubes discretionary spending goes down 2 -- & I know Nobody Reads Anymore, specially not those people driving Hummers & Beamers & Escalades. They're 2 busy working 2 pay off their bills....
But if this trend continues I'm gonna miss that comfortable feeling I useta get walking in2 a Barnes & Noble or Borders or B. Dalton or Waldenbooks -- or any good used bookstore -- that feeling that there were lotsa treasures waiting there, if I could just find them.
Guess I'd better make that trip 2 Tacoma & see how many of those 6th Ave. used-record stores are still open....
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2 comments:
Hey TAD...The news have reported that the Borders stores up here are safe for the moment but I do remember going to the Borders in Mesa when I was in town and hung out there. But the used store Bookmans was always busy and have no fear of being sold out. And Half Priced Books are not going out of biz anytime soon, they have assured me.
Been ten years since I been in Seattle but i think there was a great record store on 6th can't think of the name but at that time they have plenty of Wherehouse Music and Tower Records was around.
My nephew works for Borders. Luckily he's safe, for now at least. My brother and sis-in-law are encouraging him to keep his resume up to date and well polished. And I've still got some friends that work for Follett's college bookstores at the corporate level (where I used to work) that I can get in touch with if need be, so I've put that on the table as well.
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