Tangible Loss

Borders closing down was inevitable. The business was poorly managed and I truly believe that a business not focused on its employees first is almost sure to fail eventually. A writer for the publishers weekly put it very nicely in this article:  http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/48165-fatal-mistakes.html

I am deeply saddened by it, but I’m not surprised. I have ever enjoyed going to Barnes and Nobles over Borders anyway. However, I do hold fond memories of high school group meet ups at the Borders in Winter Park Village, the most center location for all my friends. We would hang out by the graphic novels, or sometimes in the new age sections, I’m sure once or twice we even managed to get a group of tables. We read our respected things, and talked and laughed, and then we’d head out for the movies or some food. It didn’t matter, we were in high school and we were with each other.

I can now add one more Border’s memory to my list before the doors close forever. After moving to NYC a year ago, I placed a ban on buying books for myself. As much as I love them, and there is a growing list of books I want to read versus books I own and are able to read, I couldn’t afford them and sometimes sacrifices must be made in order to eat.

I broke that ban recently, and I forgot what it felt like to actually purchase a book. I knew of a Border’s nearby my workplace, on 33^rd and 7^th and since I knew they would be liquidating their assets, I decided to take advantage of their sales. I bought two books. Just two. But they were books high up in my want-to-read-but-do-not-own-yet list. I was ecstatic. I bought them on my lunch hour and had about fifteen minutes before I had to go back to work and I spent the entire time, grinning like a madman, one book in each hand, staring at each book respectively trying to decide which to start first. It was the hardest  decision I made that week. I didn’t come to a decision until later that evening. Both have been read now and are very happy in their new homes on my bookshelves.

As much as I love my kindle, the feel of a book in my hands, the excitement of waiting for that book to be out in the bookstore, finally getting it, and the greedy lust for words that has you reading it before you get out of the stories a feeling that will be sorely missed. In a world of instant gratification, does anyone think about what we are missing?

A Look Back in Time

I came across this building while out and was immediately struck with sadness and awe. Sadness that the era of this grand building is ending, and awe because it still stands as a testament to glory of books. I couldn’t stop staring at its green exterior, now showing its age with rust dotting its hull like age spots. It stood assumed empty in hell’s kitchen watching the younger buildings thrive and grow tall. But it remembers the glory that embodied it once. The height of books and the power of the written word that is so subtlety yet quickly being taken over by its electronic brothers.

The McGraw Hill Building is located on 330 West 42nd Street. Wikipedia – admittedly not the most reliable source – says it was completed the same year as the Empire State building. It’s the only New York building shown in the influential International Style exhibition in 1932, and has been cited as a Art Deco design landmark. It also became a National Historic Landmark.

It’s now been replaced by a spiffy new building in a more business-like area, but I find this building to be one in a million. When we will ever again see a publishing company so big, they can place their name on the top of the building?