Yesterday’s announcement of Borders closing means different things to different people. To those of us who covet physical books, the closing of the nation’s second largest bookstore chain is utterly upsetting. It makes us consider the present and future of books and publishing, and the booming past that is slipping away much too quickly for our tastes.
“An Abbreviated History of Books,” a subsection of the History of Graphic Design website begins by telling us how books are constructed and how they are to be studied. Harkening back to the earliest form of books — scrolls of papyrus or cloth — the site itself is a scrolling lesson in how books came to be, taking us on a journey of wood block printed books, Gutenberg’s printing press, the evolution of book illustration, and redefining the book form in the 20th century. I wonder what will come next, in this age of online commerce, e-readers, and iPads.
The digital world can never replace books like Marian Bantjes’ I Wonder or Stephen Heller and Louise Fili’s Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design’s Golden Age or Shoe Love: In Pop-up by Jessica Jones (I’d like to see a pop-up book on an e-reader!). While I admit that I am currently reading a book on an iPad, it will never feel the same to me as picking a book off of a shelf, leafing through its pages, absorbing every detail of its cover. My favorite books are filled with highlighted phrases and annotations.
I worked at Borders for over two years, and every day I saw people who were as passionate about books as I. I met wonderful people who knew amazing things — things they’d learned from books. I worked the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — hundreds of people dressed up and lined up for hours to get their hands on a book (yes, I admit, I was one of them).
Photo from Patrick Coyne, editor and designer of Communication Arts magazine. Full story here.
NPR says the closing of Borders will extend far beyond the loss of jobs. Publishers will have to print shorter runs of new books, and those that had departments devoted to working with Borders will have to close down their departments. “Granted, the reduced print runs for books don’t mean that fewer books will sell, but Borders’ closing does have a huge effect on how many physical copies will be out in the world,” says Rachel Syme in a recent NPR article. “It is yet another nail in the coffin of the old-fashioned brick and mortar, paper and gum book business as the world zooms toward an ever more digital model.”
What does this mean for you? For your family? [SJ]
