I'd do it, but I still prefer the comfy, more welcoming feeling of mom-and-pop indie booksellers. Nothing Borders or Barnes and Noble put out feels like a real bookstore with a lot of hardbound leather books, the faint smell of old paper, the coziness of a real brick store where the shelves crowd in, not suffocating, but comforting. Instead, the big boxes have big open areas where you're assailed by lights, the sights and sounds of people walking by endlessly, and the constant quest to score a table amidst all the college kids using the free wifi.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Baxter" <martinbaxt...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2010 12:33:32 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Brutal Book War remedy: Book Clubs There are a couple of these meeting at the Borders just up the road from me. Never felt compelled to join in, though. On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 9:47 AM, Kelwyn < ravena...@yahoo.com > wrote: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-borders20-2010mar20,0,7054811.story The chain lets book groups know they are welcome to meet at its stores. The move is aimed at boosting sales amid intense competition from online vendors and big retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target. By Sandra M. Jones March 20, 2010 Chicago In the increasingly brutal book wars, Borders Group Inc. is learning what coffeehouses long have known: Encourage shoppers to think of you as a home away from home and they'll spend more, maybe even become regulars. To spur that feeling, Borders quietly unveiled a program last month that invites book clubs to convene at its cafes instead of in members' homes. The step is geared toward helping the money-losing bookstore chain drum up sales and reshape itself into a local gathering place instead of a faceless superstore.
