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.