Borders didn’t change with the digital times, as Barnes & Noble
seems to be doing. And for every loss, I’m convinced, there is a gain.
Sure, I am saddened and worried that the Internet is killing newspapers,
civility, and church socials, but the Net has brought us unimaginable
access to information, people, and goods and services. If bookstores are
joining record stores as the latest bricks-and-mortar losers, our
digital options are only getting better. Once you start using an iPad,
Kindle, or other e-reader and experience the almost-instantaneous
download of a book you just heard someone praise, it is hard to go back
to browsing the aisles or waiting for the mail carrier to arrive. You
don’t need a physical book, though it is a beautiful thing. And a good
bookstore is about more than books. Even if shopping-mall bookstores are
not warm and fuzzy places, they are places where a certain amount of
serendipity reigns, where you encounter other people taking pleasure in
ideas. Bookstores are part of what sociologists call “third places” –
destinations that are neither home nor office, places to linger without
feeling that the meter is running or another customer wants your table.