The End of an era? A look at the closing of Borders Bookstore

By the end of September, Borders will officially close all of its bookstores.  Over the summer, many books were discounted 50% in an attempt to clear out as many books as possible.  Despite being the go to place for books for many people sometime after it’s opening in 1971, competition from Barnes and Noble and electronic readers like the kindle and the nook, have forced the bookstore to file for chapter eleven bankruptcy.

                Everyone seems to have a similar reaction to the closing—at least everyone who’s ever gotten a book from there.

                “The closing of Borders…devastates the industry for hardcover and paperback books,” said Chris Fancher, officer of reading club last year and occasional Borders shopper.

There’s a sense of sadness, and a realization that change is coming, followed immediately by an opposition to that change.

                Maybe this suspected change shouldn’t be so obstinately opposed though.  There are pros and cons to paperbacks, and weighing both sides of the debate between e-readers and paperbacks will certainly be a good debate going ahead.

                 “An e book reader…is a great device,” said Fancher who added, “Don't get me wrong, it's just sometimes it's nice to have a book with pages.”

                Some aspects of the debate to consider are prices, accessibility, and portability.  E-readers tend to win in all of these categories.  However, sometimes it takes longer to take notes and find notes inside an e-reader, and you have to keep an e-reader charged in order to use it.  But there are many other aspects to consider, and moving forward, more issues will be both raised and resolved.

                So what does this mean for the future of books?  For the near future, it just means you’ll have to shop at a different bookstore for your paperbacks.  But it’s hard to imagine that this won’t have long term implications as well.  If nothing else, it’s at least a sign of changing times.  The current evolution in reading and writing seems to be one from ink and paper, to one of computers and electronics (except, of course, for the kindle, which does technically use ink; but that’s arguing semantics).

In the end, this change is something that readers of books everywhere will just have to accept.  E-readers offer a great alternative to books, save paper, and can even be a great money saver when it comes to things like buying college textbooks.

“I believe that the time of textbooks is ending and that the time of reading devices is beginning,” said Fancher referring to the future of books in school.  “Schools will begin to realize that having e book readers is more convenient and economically sound than hardcover text books.”

                Writers though, may feel this change in a different way.  While this certainly won’t discourage any novelists or authors, seeing your manuscript go from a computer screen to an e-reader screen, isn’t as gratifying as seeing your manuscript go from a computer screen to a paperback.  But the field of writing has constantly been changing—from pen and paper, to typewriters, to computers—and this change will certainly be as smooth as any other.

                The news that Borders is closing certainly evokes a feeling of nostalgia.  But it also evokes a sense of uncertainty.  No one can know exactly where the future of books is, but it is clear that paperbacks won’t play as large of a role as they once did.

N.H.L. Playoffs Review (2012)

By the time anyone reads this, the playoffs may very well be over.  However, at this point in mid-May, four teams remain.  In the Western Conference, the Kings and Coyotes play in a matchup of goaltenders, and in the Eastern Conference, two rival cities in the forms of the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils play.

            The team that probably has the least chance to win is the New Jersey Devils.  They were a middle-of-the-pack team during the regular season, and they barely made it out of the first round against the Florida Panthers who haven’t made the playoffs in years.  Granted, they have proven me wrong two rounds in a row now, but I’m confident that this will be their last series of this season.

            Which leads me to the next team, the New York Rangers, who I believe will win the series between themselves and the Devils.  The Rangers are a team that usually doesn’t make it very far in the playoffs, and it is somewhat surprising to see them in this position, although they easily could’ve gotten eliminated in either of the first two rounds.  They needed seven games to beat both the eighth seeded Ottawa Senators and the seventh seeded Washington Capitals.  However, their strengths do lie in defense—with both their notable shot blocking from the defensemen, and goaltending from Henrik Lundqvist—and defense is the most important piece for winning a championship.

            Out in the Western conference are the third seeded Phoenix Coyotes.  They had been a favorite to go to, if not win, the Stanley Cup Finals, until they ran into the freight train known as the Los Angeles Kings, that is.  Led by sensational goaltender Mike Smith and veteran captain Shane Doan, the Coyotes were a force to be reckoned with in the first round against the Chicago Blackhawks, and in the second round against the Nashville Predators.  In fact, the Coyotes had been so good, Mike Smith particularly, that they made Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne, who had been having an outstanding postseason, look average.  Their only problem, which has now been magnified, was that their offense wasn’t quite clicking, with their top goal scorer being Antoinne Vermette, who most would consider a role player, not necessarily a scorer.

            Then there are the Los Angeles Kings.  After getting some marquee players from the Philadelphia Flyers in the forms of Jeff Carter and Mike Richards, it seemed the Kings were bound for success, but it was uncertain if they’d even make the playoffs going into their final games, and they just barely snuck in as the eighth seed.  Their problem had been that there offense wasn’t up to par, but something connected in the playoffs and the Kings defeated the top seeded Vancouver Canucks in five games in the first round, and completed a four game sweep of the St. Louis Blues in the second round.  In fact, the Kings were the first eighth seed in N.H.L. history to beat both the one and two seeds in the same postseason.  For some reason, no one seems to be able to score on goaltender Jonathan Quick right now, and captain Dustin Brown has been on a tear.

            I would be lying if I say I’d thought the Kings would be the favorite to win the Stanley Cup at this point in the playoffs, although I did have a hunch they’d go far because of certain players on their roster.  However, I had thought it would be the St. Louis Blues who’d win the Stanley Cup this year.  Now that I’ve seen them get swept by the Kings though, I’m more convinced than ever that the Kings will win the Stanley Cup.  If I had to predict, I’d say it will be the Rangers and the Kings in the finals, and the Kings will win in six games.  If the Devils ended up in the finals however, I think the Kings would sweep them.  On the off chance that the Coyotes made it to the finals, I think they could also beat either team from the East.  The West simply has a stronger conference this year.  The West has sort of been the antithesis of the Republican primaries: instead of exposing one another and spurting out a weakened candidate, the Western conference allowed for the just the right amount of pressure to produce one of the best looking playoffs teams in recent memory, the Los Angeles Kings.