Everyone spends time at Border and Daedalus and insert favorite bookstore here, but did you spend money there? Spending "time' at your favorite store--then shopping online kills the place you like to hang out. Amazon is the Walmart of the internet.

I think in the long run, bookstores in general are done, except on a very limited basis. Generally, going online to order books offers better selection at similar or superior prices, and is a lot more convenient. People have had like 15 years now to adapt to that world and change their habits, and many have (Plus a new generation has grown up with it as a default). In the long run, the e-book is going to deliver the next blow -- rendering the paper book itself obsolete to the majority of readers (Meaning bookstores won't even have something to offer them that they want -- they'll want a file where they can set the font size and store it in an e-library).

Of course, record stores still exist, and I suspect bookstores will still exist. They'll just be far fewer of them, and you'll see a limited number of overpriced hard cover releases. But don't expect to see 4 bookstores within walking distance of each other with cheap mass market paperbacks the way there used to be in some areas years ago.

That's just life. The world moves on. Books continue as a concept, though, just with new technology. In a way it's sad, but, over all, e-books offer a lot that paper books don't. The eye strain of small fonts and the clutter of having to find space for books, as well as the trees cut down and so on and so forth, are things that it's good to moved passed even if occasionally I'll get nostalgic for the smell of paper and the feel physically flipping a page. Honestly, before I was given an e-reader, I had gone from reading a ton to barely reading anymore -- it just felt out of place in the era of MP3s and so on and so forth, and I couldn't find space to store the things, plus it was flat out uncomfortable to squint at the ridiculous print sizes that publishers used to try to spend less and less on paper. And in the electronic era, one can sometimes find free or reduced price books that independent publishers and authors can bring almost straight to the people without the expenses that barred entry to would-be authors and small presses at times.

Computers strain your eyes more than books and cause migraines. Do some research before starting on a tirade about how books are going to become obsolete purely based on the fact the Borders chain is closing down for good. It's one chain of bookstores and there are plenty of books and stores out there still.

Ebooks offer an anti-social way to buy books instead of having to confront someone and pay with paper cash.

This generation is getting more and more unintelligent and lazy.

"Oh no BOOK CLUTTER! GOD HELP US ALL!"

Book clutter, please.

some good points above by john, especially re: the environmental impact, though i agree with the original post--that it's a real shame to lose places so lovely to spend time in...which gets to mr. nook's point. it's true that for me, book stores are most valuable as places to relax and explore rather than shopping venues, so i can't say i necessarily did my part in defending them.

i wonder how long barnes+noble will last.

It's not just bookstores that are done. More and more people are buying more and more online. Across the country, there will be fewer brick and mortar stores, fewer jobs, and fewer revenues for the local economy. Ain't technology grand!!

@Carla: The better dedicated (i.e. readers that don't do other things) e-readers out there, like the Kindle, don't use computer screens. They have a different technology called "e-ink" that doesn't use lights or a reflective surface to display words. It's specifically designed to minimize eye strain and reads much like a paper book. The difference? You can adjust the font size to what suits you. In my case, I make it pretty big because I have eye issues. However, one could also make it really small to fit the most possible words on a page if that's one's preference.

And, yes, book clutter can be a big issue if you have a small apartment and read a lot of books.

Re book clutter: I would remind John of the title of one of the volumes in Anthony Powell's opus A Dance to the Music of Time; namely, "Books Do Furnish A Room." If e-readers become dominant, we will no longer have the sneaky pleasure of scanning a new acquaintance's bookshelves and making moral judgments about character based on the titles. And every reader has done that.

The Borders failure was a combination of things--over expansion, a delayed effort to set up an online presence and, yes, letting Barnes & Noble beat them to the e-reader. As a former bookstore manager, I can well remember when the first Borders opened in the DC area out near White Flint. This was in the late 1980s when the company was expanding out of Ann Arbor Michigan and was privately owned by brothers named, you got it, Borders. What was left was nothing like what the brothers had started, by I presume they got rich years ago by selling.

I think the independent bookstore, run judiciously, will remain. The Ivy on Falls Road just north of Mt. Washington does well. And Daedalus still has its Columbia location and mail order/internet operation. They just couldn't make the overhead selling remainders in Belvedere Square.

I work with server infrastructure pretty regularly, so I would heavily dispute the "greener" claim. Even taking heavy caching/virtualization into account, an AWS data facility uses a lot of computers (which quickly become obsolete, leaving tons of heavy metals to be cleaned up), and those computers use lots of electricity -- most of it generated by coal.

I like e-ink as the next guy, but don't kid yourself: It's not a whole lot greener than books, and in some cases, it might be worse.

Additionally, I work in a major suburb of a large city, which means that, like all large suburbs, we get our share of crime. Carrying a paperback on the train is much less risky than toting around a hundred-plus-dollar e-reader, especially if you don't want the hassle of disguising the e-reader.

That means I basically limit my nook reading to the back porch and around the house. It's handy when my local library doesn't have something and I want to catch up with what my friends are reading in a hurry. (For example: I kept up on the Girl With the ... series that way.)

Actually, paper books ('dead tree editions') are pretty green: many publishers re-plant forests and generally make an effort to keep them sustainable. [Dover Publications is the one that sticks out most in my mind.] One can give away or lend or otherwise recycle them. I try to send my Advance Reader Copies to the troops - they seem to enjoy the fiction the most.

Ebooks will be popular with a certain demographic and paper books with another demographic. I think we can all get along easily - we're all reading the same stories!

Disclaimer - I sell both eBooks and Dead Tree editions.

Best comments (so far): Olive Nook and Programmer man.

After reading everyone’s comments on some I agree and naturally disagree. I too work in IT and yes electronic displays eventually cause eye strain (there is an IEEE paper on this topic) like pushing yourself to finish a paperback when your eyes are fatigue, you can’t read the page anymore and have to quit. I did this many times as a kid and learn sometimes you have to put it down and continue tomorrow. I too have an e-reader and use it and I order from amazon.com, borders.com and Barnes and Noble.com hardcover books and paperbacks, and yet I still go into bookstores. There is nothing like holding a book and flipping the pages, even though the e-readers give you the simulation it is not the same. I would go to Borders and sit and read and have a cup of regular coffee or a latte. I think my difference is I still would walk out of the store with something, not always but I sometimes made up for it by walking out of the store with at least one or two handbags full of books or at a minimum one book. As for the store on your computer eventually you have to go to a larger drive or put it out on one of those internet drives or “cloud drives” to store and technically increase your energy consumption foot print. The servers run 24/7 and need energy and it comes from either nuke or coal powers sources. The book industry does contribute to the planting of trees. For you need to keep the supply going. Remember for as a tree dies and rots it produces methane not oxygen, new trees are needed also for a “green “earth. A few weeks back before the announcement I walked back into the children’s section and saw a mom reading to her little girl and she was fixated on the book and every word her mom spoke as she read it. I have not yet seen a mother at Starbucks reading from an e-reader to their child. Later that same day I was at the B&N and a mother had her daughter there and she was playing with the Nook, as sales rep was helping decide on which reader, and the mother had her nook with her. I notice the girl was playing around with it and looking at the children’s books on it and then went to the angry birds’ game. Later they were in front of me, I was buying the Nook color, and the girl was holding on to the book she wanted as mom would pay for it at the counter. As for storage I live in an apartment and yes space is a premium I eventually go through my older books that I have not read in years and box them up and head to the library. As I go to the desk one librarian would go ‘oh! My god more books!” So my books live on at the library for a while. As for the Facebook, Twitter and ipad or phone generation and the printed word, I asked that question “do you think books will disappear?” As they play with the ipads and iphones or hacking devices for full android functionality. They reply “Oh, I hope not I love the feel of holding and reading a good book! “ The common or universal response to the question asked, with only 8% of the book sales are electronic. Plus e-readers have been around before and faded away and new technology gave it a second run. From what I seen at work most are hack to be mini-tablets and used for other things like watching movies etc. I do not think the book will disappear and as one young person in the office mentioned it is media that still runs when the power is out or doesn’t cuts off when the batteries are weak, Good point It seems that as the current generation may be poorly educated they have not become totally ignorant or brainless. The only choice for us now in this literary Armageddon is do you want to go from oxygen deprivation, methane or coal gas asphyxiation or be radiated. You just have to pick your poison and hope for the best. Finally, in the electronic age I find it interesting as I went into a pen shop that with all the ballpoint and roller ball pens people are still are looking for and buying fountain pens which the industry said will die after the invention of the ballpoint pen and they worked over time for a compromise pen which was the roller ball pen. The pen may eventually disappear due to a lot of schools not teaching proper cursive writing and the e-reader will win because future writers can type a good book but, can’t write their name. Digital signatures will be used but, it’s not the same.

i have a 100.00 gift card from borders which i didnt get to spend due to illness . will I lose it or is their some way to get it back. thank you

Lavelle, I suppose you could plead your case with Barnes & Noble, which has purchased Borders' customer list and is using it for marketing purposes. But B&N did not accept responsibility for Borders coupons and gift cards, as far as I can determine. So, unfortunately, you may be out of luck.

the book store is a good place to enjoy an afternoon,though it has impacted by eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, i think it will never be replaced .

It is discouraging to witness the closing of bricks-and-mortar book stores. However, survival of the fittest is always at play in the marketplace, and I don't think physical book sales will completely disappear in the intermediate future. Perhaps I'm optimistic because of my venture to sell books via a smartphone app.