I was disappointed when Borders went out of business. Borders is, er, was the bookstore in my neighborhood. Now my neighborhood doesn't have a bookstore. I used to say that not having a bookstore says something about a neighborhood - if the people who live around you can't sustain a bookstore, you probably don't live in a nice place.

At least I've still got Barnes and Noble. I like going there - particularly for the newsstand. The coffee shops always seem full of people - the Starbucks at the Georgia Tech Barnes and Noble is a central hangout for the Atlanta startup community.

Perhaps if I had a nook or an iPad my gratification would be even more instant. But I don't. I haven't really been motivated to switch formats because I always buy books ahead of my consumption, so I have a bunch of books around that I plan to read, and by the time they are read I'll have collected more. I haven't managed to get myself on the wagon.

Also, I find that I get a lot of reading done at times when I cannot use an electronic device - I read while airplanes taxi.

Am I a dinosaur?

One Motley Fool author has called for B&N to go out of business.

The financials look pretty bad:

Barnes & Noble cut its yearly guidance for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a financial measure known as Ebitda, to between $150 million to $180 million. In December it said that figure would be at the low end of the range of $210 million to $250 million.

The bookseller expects a yearly loss of $1.40 to $1.10 per share on total sales between $7 billion and $7.2 billion. The loss is far greater than the loss of10 cents to 50 cents Barnes & Noble forecast in August. And it’s bigger than the 63 cents per share expected by analysts, according to Fact Set. Analysts expect revenue of $7.34 billion.

Given the number of people who always seem to be in these stores when I go there, I find this surprising, but perhaps they are just there for the coffee?

What will happen when Barnes & Noble dies? There is something about the task of "going to the book store" that I enjoy. Its a fun outing.

I used to think that record stores played an important roll in... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]