Submitted by Marjorie Bartell
It's official, every Border's bookstore in the US closed this month for good. After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February of this year, and then not being able to make up the money by a July deadline, the company made the decision to close all 399 US stores.
It's not just Border's, although they are the most extreme case. More than 1,000 bookstores in US have closed from 2000 to 2007 (source). So what could be a possible reason for the slow decline in business to bookstores and bookstores themselves? The biggest suspect we could look at it is the rise of the Ebook reader.
The Ebook reader is made by many different companies. The one you may hear about the most, through the heavy marketing they have done, is the Amazon Kindle (pictured on the right). Sales for the standard black and white displays for Ebook readers are expected to reach 25-30 millions units this year (source).
Libraries in several places in the US are now starting to make their books available through Ebook readers, making their library selections ready to browse and download online. Some schools are starting to make the switch from standard textbooks to Ebook textbooks.
So what kind of effects can this new technology have on our society and our every day life? Bookstores have always been a great place to find a good book, listen to book readings from your favorite author, or meet other people that may be interested in the same books as you are. With this establishment slowly fading away, it creates another wall of isolation in our society. Most of us do our shopping online, and there are many other factors that keep us from the every day chances we have make face to face social connections. We will no longer even have to say hello to the mail man who may have delivered us the book, or the librarian when we need to find a book in the library.
However, reading books in general is quite an isolating habit in the first place. Ebook readers just makes the delivery and where we buy/rent them, much more isolating. There really isn't much we as a society can do to change this, making books electronic really does just make sense. My parents are a perfect example of this, the amount of money, time, and space they could save by using Ebook Readers could be astronomical. My father in particular goes through library books like they're candy!
The only worry is the library, the book stores, what will happen to them? Will every one be able to even afford ebook readers? Maybe our libraries will be replaced with ebook rental places! Only time will tell. Until that time, enjoy not having piles of books lying around anymore if you can afford it, but don't forget to find ways to involve others! At least talk to people about the lovely books you're reading. Bring your ebook readers outside!
