Like Losing an Old Friend

My heart breaks to know that Border's is closing most of its stores. We lose 5 freestanding stores in the Tampa Bay area, and only 2 will remain. It may be a matter of time for both. I'm an Amazon maven, but I went into a Borders once a week. I liked their membership program a lot better than B & N's and I also preferred Seattle's Best over Starbucks.

I once spent a lot of time with earphones, listening to music at Borders before I bought. With the demise of the CD, I liked to visit to look at their staff recommendation books, to buy a new hardcover that I didn't want to wait for, and to buy gifts. I struggle to think of the loss for generations if, in 20 years, there are no bookstores (thus, one of my resistance points for the Kindle) and reductions of libraries.

Enuff said. Feels like a funeral.

Books of the week....

Books, books, books....I've returned to an old favorite author or two this week....

Catching up with Margaret Maron's southern judge in "Hard Row"...

Revisiting my love affair with Minnesota author Leif Erickson in his newest.. "So Brave, Young and Handsome"

Going to Baltimore with Laura Lippman for her first two mysteries... "Baltimore Blues" and "Charm City".

And staying current with Scott McClellan's "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception"....even if I do think Scott was pretty much of a wussy. I was tired of reading all the support/attacks on a book that most supporters and attackers have not even read.

I'm also going to try to attempt to track my films each week, and add a quote and a poem I enjoy. Since we already have the marvelous "Imperfection"; I saw two films this week; the DVD version of "I Am Legend"; if you liked it and were a little shattered by it, as I was, you will have a difficult time dealing with the upcoming version of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". I also caught a second movie on DVD (note to self....go to the theater) that I've enjoyed many times - Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V". A little heavy for a hot summer weekend while others were catching "Kung Fu Panda", I admit...but I loved it!

In my car stereo this week is the inimitable Jack Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static".

And my quote:

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." ~~~ William James