Our brick-and-mortar Barnes and Noble closed first. Then a few months later the nearby Borders closed, as well. As much as I, personally, have been trying to unload my boxes and boxes and boxes of hardcover, softcover and everything inbetween books- it is simply because I recognized that while I do not anchor myself to my environment with Hummel figurines, basket collections or 14 sets of le creuset cookware, I do anchor myself with books. I'm not going anywhere with the *literal* several tons of books in my house/garage/attic, at least not anywhere FAST. Some people weigh themselves down with commitments or churches or credit card payments, or even more literally with food or beverage or drug of choice- so many of us have become a slave to our things. My thing is books. I'm afraid to get rid of books I've read and cherihed, some many times over. I don't want to part with the stack of books I purchased because they looked so appealing to read at the time and then I never got around to them. And, of course, when the pandemic-zombie-apocalypse thing comes and none of our electronics work anymore, I hate to think of being stuck without a good read!?!? (As if the looters are all going to head straight to the library and book sections of Target and Costco) Anyhow, I have been culling the herd- part of which already lives in the attic and I don't even know what's up there anymore. But all this is a rambling aside.
Back to my main point: the nearest real bookstore(as in not Christian, not of some other religious ilk) is the Half Price books that is 5 miles from here and has a relatively sarse number of NEW inventory. I can get books from Costco and Target, of course, but only bestsellers and there is a pretty narrow demographic their book buyers target. According to Google Maps, the nearest Borders is nowhere- as in all stores permanently closed- a quick web search reveals that Borders has been bought up by Barnes and Noble. The closest Barnes and Noble to us is now a 30 minute drive and who knows if that is accurate- they might have shuttered their windows by now.
I was sad when all the little mom&pop bookshops closed as the Borders and B&Ns moved in with their shiny, department store allure. My luck is just such that the Barnes and Noble in El Cerrito is still open, so I can go and enjoy the bookstore experience while Avery is at rehearsal.
But do you ever wonder if we're going to wake up one morning to find that our entire government has been outsourced to Amazon.com and Amazon's front page will have a note from Jeff Bezos offering cheaper health insurance to Amazon Prime members or something?
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