Bye-Bye, Borders – Will You Be Missed?

As you’ve probably already heard, mega-bookstore Borders filed for bankruptcy in February.  With liabilities of $1.29 billion and assets of $1.28 billion, they claim they don’t have the “capital resources it needs to be a viable competitor.”  So they are closing up 30% of their stores, and placing a new focus on ebooks and non-book products.  That’s going to be a lot of posters, candles, and scrapbooking.  Oh my!

What is the impact of Borders closing?  Well, for some, it’s another nail in the coffin for print authors.  If booksellers and bookstores aren’t able to change these venues into “events,” they will likely give way to the discount stores and online options.   For others it’s a sign of the future, where all books will be available to download for a mere $.99.

And now  it’s easier than ever to get into the publishing world; you can use the self-publishing options like www.lulu.com, or skip print altogether, and create your own ebook.  Seth Godin has been promoting what he calls the next step in the evolution of book publication – The Domino Project, in which he has teamed up with Amazon to try and change the way books are built, sold, and spread.   The point of this project is to build ideas – books should be used to share information, and not – as Godin suggests currently happens – solely a profit driven enterprise.

This made me curious about how people are finding material to read.  Where are you buying your books?  Where are you reading them?  I personally buy my books from Amazon, and ebooks on the iPad, but I’d love to know where you get your reading material.

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