Books have always been my best friends. They're how I learn, they entertain me as TV never could, and they don't get mad at something I've said or didn't say or should have said or maybe thought of saying, and pick up their marbles and go home. I would be miserable in a home without books, and one of my happiest little pleasures is to spend an hour, two hours, half a day (no, seriously, I have) in Books-a-Million, browsing, reading, lounging on a big, soft chair and drinking coffee, maybe even splurging and having a giant cookie, for which I'll feel adequately guilty later.
When Borders went out of business, it shook me. We didn't even have a Borders here, but it was the end of an era in some ways, and if it can happen to them, why not Books-a-Million or Barnes and Noble?
I have to take responsibility, though....we all do. Remember when the first Wal-Mart came to your town, and everyone said it would be bad for the local economy, and you shopped there anyway because it's so convenient and has great prices? Well it was/is bad for the economy. When Wal-Mart came to Batesville, within a couple of years, centuries old stores like Barnett's Department Store and Maxfields closed their doors forever because they couldn't compete. They sold quality goods that Wal-Mart never heard of, but people gravitate to whatever costs less.
Well, that's what we see happening now with the internet and fun places to shop like Amazon.com. There's not a week goes by that I don't order something online, usually several somethings. And when I got my iPhone and realized I can sit in my Books-a-Million store and scan book barcodes through Amazon.com and be told immediately that I can buy that $20-$30 book for as little as 1 penny plus shipping, I went a little crazy. Heck, you can place the order right then and there. My friends (the books) take a few days to get here, but I'm saving like a gazillion dollars (I never was good at math). Woo-Hoo!!
But then Borders closed, and it got me to thinking that I'm to blame! Oh, not me alone, but I'm one of the culprits, and so I turned over a new leaf, and yesterday, I found three books in BAM that I couldn't live without, and I ordered two of them, but I bought the third one in the store and vowed never to buy books, compliments of their store's hospitality, from an online business without buying at least one at their checkout. I don't mean to preach, but you know you're guilty, and I hope you'll mend your careless ways, too, so we can save our bookstores.
Oh, and Marley? He's not much into books. When he was still a puppy, he chewed the corner of one of my friends, but we had a serious talk, and he never has even noticed them lying scattered on the floor around my chair again.
He's such a good dog.
Thanks for stopping by!
Love, Cat & Marley
