Closing Its Borders

I am sad that many Borders stores are closing. Is this the end of retail stores for books? Sure, there is Barnes and Noble and many other independent booksellers, but nowadays they are getting scarcer and scarcer.

Whenever I write a new book, people inevitably ask me, "What stores can I find it in?" to which I reply, "It's in some, but you really have to go to Amazon to buy it."

I like it that everything's available on Amazon, but it is still sad that there's so much that don't make it to bookstores anymore. Unless your name is Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck or Stephen King or Ken Follett, the chances of getting your book to a store today is virtually nil.

The next step in this unfortunate direction is that people are investing in Kindles and such like contraptions. I am not adverse to technology, but books have a certain something that you can't get from one of these electronic devises. Plus, the picture quality is rarely as sharp as it is in a magazine or book.

A lot of times these companies cut corners. Look on the review for the complete "Playboy" or "Mad" or "National Geographic" and the complaints will be the same that the resolution sucks on these scanned versions because they scan them at too low of resolution.

I am not as annoyed by audio books, because there are people that are losing their vision or don't like to read, but at least they are still getting the message written from a book. Sometimes they are dramatized so well it's like listening to an old time radio show. I plan to do audio books for both my TTV and "Cracked" books. Not sure yet about Harvey or Beatles.

In any case, support your local bookstore, before it goes away and is replaced by yet another Mediterranean restaurant...

and I like Mediterranean food...