Borders seems to be near bankruptcy; it's delaying more payments to vendors and landlords to preserve cash. In the meantime, ebooks for the Kindle outsold paperbacks for the first time:
There are some fairly deep questions about what will happen if books go the way of film cameras and music CDs. E-books can't be loaned or re-sold, and can be “lost” forever if your device malfunctions or gets broken somehow (though the “cloud” model in theory allows you to re-download, what happens if the “cloud” goes down?). All the same caveats that apply to digital music also applies to e-books, and more besides.
It just seems to me that we are rushing into a paper-book-free world without really considering what that really means.
My sentiments, too. Love my Kindle, and I'll keep downloading good reads to it. But I also love hanging out in bookstores, and it will be sad when there's one fewer brand.
