As Stores Die, So Does Book Culture

Boston Globe - THE LIQUIDATION of Borders Books, announced last week, is like the death of an unlikely friend - unlikely because Borders was itself implicated in the slow-motion degradation of the culture of the book.

The story began in 1971, when brothers Tom and Louis Borders, students at the University of Michigan, established a book shop in Ann Arbor. They were among the first to grasp the potential of digital technology, inventing software that revolutionized how inventories were tracked. Borders became a book-selling powerhouse. The company proved insufficiently nimble, though, when online ordering - via Amazon or the Barnes & Noble website - transformed the point of sale, and digital files - via Kindle, Nook, or iPad - replaced paper publication entirely. The technology that made Borders boom ultimately killed it.  Read more.

Comments

Popular Posts