We live in a mountain town and tourist area, so we don’t have a Borders megastore anywhere around. We do—however—have a Waldenbooks. And it is going out of business because it is linked with Borders. I recently stopped in. Huge 20-40% off signs blemished the store. Everything must go.
I remember living in Racine, Wisconsin in the 1980s when the first Waldenbooks appeared in our local mall. It was pretty exciting! In fact, before its emergence, I don’t remember where I purchased all of my Judy Blumes, Nancy Drews, Encyclopedia Browns, and my then-favorite book: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
When I moved to Phoenix, I encountered the mega bookstores, and I was in heaven. I have always loved books and reading. My parents instilled that in me as a child. I thrilled at wandering the aisles, taking in the endless sea of book spines, smelling the rich scent of coffee as it brewed in the nearby café (though, those came later). When work drained me and the stresses of life became too much, I drove to the nearest Borders to lap up the calm and lose myself in the whole experience: the touch of the pages as I sampled them, the rise of the stairs as they took me to new genres on the upper floor, the smile from a fellow patron in a shared section of the store.
I hold fond memories of taking my older son into the kids’ section with its colorful rug and rainbow of book covers and spending countless time perusing the children’s books. It wasn’t so much about the book purchase itself as the experience of being in a book-loving place.
Now Borders is going the way of the dinosaur. And it makes me sad. A part of my history is getting lost. Being replaced by electronic readers and online book shopping. Someday I will recount to my grandchildren the elusive idea of drifting through a physical building that housed and sold books. Much like the record and cassette players, the rotary phone, and the typewriter; bookstores are becoming obsolete.
So as Waldenbooks in our town—and Borders’ across the country—goes out of business, I shed a tear. Seriously! I am quite sad that experience will soon only exist in the past.
