I found this article in The Atlantic quite interesting:
What Went Wrong at Borders (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/01/what-went-wrong-at-borders/69310/) by Peter Osnos

I found this article in The Atlantic quite interesting:
What Went Wrong at Borders (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/01/what-went-wrong-at-borders/69310/) by Peter Osnos

That was fascinating. Thanks for posting. What is it with book stores and drama? Barnes & Noble and their fight with Ron Burkle and its present situation interests me as well. The board recently agreed to consider a buyout offer from the Riggio family, who wishes they had never taken it public back in 1993. It's been in the Riggio family since the late '60's/early '70's. Len Riggio is the current CEO. Talk about a book-loving family! I hope they get it back. I remember when Barnes & Noble was little more than a mail-order company that sold books through newsprint catalogs sent to homes.

I hope Borders survives also B&N and Amazon. As much as I love technology I HATE reading a book on one of those reader thingies. I prefer having the book in my hands.

I hope Borders survives also B&N and Amazon. As much as I love technology I HATE reading a book on one of those reader thingies. I prefer having the book in my hands.

I agree with you Mustang. It's kind of like the people who are predicting the end of newspapers because everything will be online. I want my morning paper and I want to hold my book in my hands and turn the pages.

As I read the article the author doesn't blame digital readers for Borders' problems. Osnos has a really good article, in my opinion at least, on digital readers that I read when I clicked on a link in the sidebar.

I do agree with Osnos that the Borders brothers, Riggio, and Bezos all "really have a deep attachment to books and the people who read them." I think Bezos' Kindle was just a natural evolution in thinking about what real readers would like to have next. I suppose the fact that the Kindle has been such a successful product pretty much attests to that.

When the Kindle was announced I knew I wanted one because it would give me the ability to nearly instantaneously buy and read a title. But I am one of those readers that cares little about the book itself or its binding or much of anything other than content and I'm willing to overlook a good many flaws even there.

Fortunately my group isn't the only one so there are plenty of people who want real books and are willing to go to some length to acquire them.

I thought one of the most interesting things about the article was the comments. Many of those were very moving to me because those of us who read do have some kind of mysterious fellowship.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Borders and Barnes and Noble. I hope they remain in some way but it isn't clear to me how they do it.

It may have been in the digital book article but I was interested to read that digital readers have actually increased the total market size.