Was trying to avoid this topic by all accounts, tired of the blathering mourning over a huge conglomerate, plus the Borders in my town was hit by the first cut. So I don't care anymore. But Dennis Johnson at MobyLives makes the best argument yet about why Borders closed. Hint, hint — it was their fault, not the book-buying public.
He also some pretty sweet media criticism in there, all the reporters jumping to the DEATH OF PRINT without thinking about the larger causes.
Read it here.
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Okay, maybe I have one thing to add. He mentions a big Canadian store stocking less than half their floor with books and now Barnes & Noble has “a novelty appliance” section just in case you're inspired to make bread after reading The Grapes of Wrath.
I don't know if this is the fungible Amazon model or if as Johnson says at Moby Lives, books don't support prime real estate. It will all be a market adjustment as books settle in a smaller sweetspot.
