Goodbye, Borders

In February, I blogged that the Borders in my hometown was closing. Well, now it looks like we're saying goodbye forever, because today, Borders has announced it will be closing all of its remaining stores. My sadness then is nothing compared to now. This is terrible news for the industry, and I think it marks a moment when we have to realize the effects of e-readers, for better and for worse. I was really hoping Borders would be able to pull through. Unfortunately, this leaves Barnes & Noble as the only major bookstore chain in the country.

Not only is this sort of creepy in a B&N OWNS THE WORLD NOW way, it's drastically cutting down on the number of places people can physically browse books. I don't know about you, but one of the best things about buying books for me is stumbling on new titles by accident. How are you supposed to stumble on new titles on Amazon? They suggest things for you, but none of the suggestions are random.

Also, plenty of bad news for new writers, who depend a lot of random stumbling, since without a fan base, nobody's technically looking for them. This will definitely make marketing even more important before the release date. You could've written a jewel of a book, but if nobody reads it, benefit from word-of-mouth will be minimal. Those books that don't get a lot of promotion from their publishers — you were shit out of luck before, and it's going to be even worse now. No matter what is said about its failing state, Borders was a major chain. The complete eradication of its units is going to have a pretty substantial effect. Apparently, B&N is considering buying some of Borders' old locations, which I guess is the best news we can conceivably expect from this situation.

It's being tossed around that books are going the way of records, in that eventually, they're just going to go away. I hope that isn't true, but how can we say for sure? I will always prefer physical copies, but that doesn't mean the next generation will.

I have a lot of wonderful memories from Borders; it was where all the high school kids hung out and did their homework. There are definitely some sentimental feelings toward the stores on my part, not purely practical ones. I usually avoided giving my business to B&N, just because I liked Borders better. And for the first time, I won't be able to buy a Percy Jackson book from Borders. I'll have to get SON OF NEPTUNE from B&N in October.

Sad day for authors, readers, and the industry in general. But especially for me.

You'll be missed, Borders.

Lookie Here

Things that happened while I was gone:

1) I got my LSAT scores back. They were great, by pretty much every objective standpoint. I sort of overreacted because I felt like I bombed it walking out, as I'm sure many people would tell you. I ended that day crying in the Olive Garden bathroom, which is the lowest of all low things, maybe with the exception of crying in a bathroom at McDonald's. I basically became a self-pitying hermit and had to be talked out of alcoholism and writing terrible poetry. So I moped for a couple of days. I'm going to a good law school and I'm going to be a real person who has employment prospects and stuff! I am retaking the test in October, but that's mainly because I'm the perfectionist freak everyone hates in life, and I have this unhealthy desire to emulate Elle Woods plus, more scholarships would be nice, yeah. But now the pressure's off, and studying has no longer become this Life-Or-Death situation. I am very, very happy about this. And looking forward to getting acceptances so I can momentarily stop worrying about my future.

2) Harry Potter 7 (Part 2) came out. Which was, all in all, a fairly good send-off. I am no giant fan of the movies, but I think the quality improved as the movies went on. The epilogue is still, as always, the most awkward part of anything, and I still hate Ginny as a character. Nevertheless, the midnight showing was fun, especially since we moved up night production in order to make it. I feel like I said goodbye when the last book came out, but even then, it was sort of sad. I am making this sound so meh, when really, I was the girl who was weeping for the second half of the movie. My friend Kevin who was sitting next to me actually turned to me halfway through and was like, "ARE YOU CRYING?"

3) My family got an orange tabby kitten! I named him Frodo, who is my favorite in LOTR. I think this is pretty much a sign that I'm going to die alone and unloved. I officially "own" a cat, and I named him after a fantasy character. Also, fun story. My roommate and I created an incredibly effective drinking game to ROTK that you should try. Drink every time:

• Gandalf does magic
• Merry or Pippin does something stupid
• Aragorn flirts with Eowyn or vice versa
• Frodo falls over
• Fake ending/fade out happens
  
• Legolas says something mysterious/looks into the distance devolved into every time Legolas is onscreen
• Someone smokes a pipe
• Elves versus dwarves rivalry is revealed
  
• Aragorn's future/lineage is mentioned
• Denethor compares Faramir unfavorably to Boromir

Have fun. Oh, and I missed the blogosphere. Will have more posts up soon!