Bookstores

What is the deal with bookstores these days?!

I walked into Borders this morning, hoping to find a copy of Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop.  I'm reading Hard Times right now (somehow I missed both books when I was an English major and then again when I was doing an M.A. in literature), and I'm enjoying it so much that I thought I'd line up the next Dickens read (I'm like an alcoholic: I like to know where my next novel is coming from).

Well, good luck with that, is all I have to say (well, not so much -- the truth is, I'm about to go off on a rant).  Because not only did Borders not have a copy of the former (it seemed to stock only the three titles read most frequently in secondary schools in the U.S. -- i.e., Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities),when I shifted gears and decided to look for F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night, the store featured exactly one edition and it was $15 (since I expect to dislike it -- I'm not a Fitzgerald fan -- that struck me as exorbitant).

Few titles by any single author (particularly if he or she is not currently on The New York Times' best seller list or featured by Oprah) and pricier editions of the titles they do stock? I flung my hands up in disgust and walked out, thinking, "I'll just order what I want from Amazon!  At least they'll have a selection!"

Therein lies the irony, of course.  I do realize that it's those choices to go to Amazon (or Starbucks ... or Target ... pick your retail outlet of choice) that has perpetuated the homogenization of bookstores, cafes, and all manner of outlets that have put independent businesses ... well, out of business. It seems as if the only two easily accessed bookstores anymore are Borders and Barnes & Noble, and although I like spending time in them (I prefer the former to the latter, but that's simply about ambience, to the degree that there is any), it's only because I'm a lover of books, not a lover of either brand. 

I let it happen, though.  Not single-handedly, no, but by participating in mall culture and in opting for the concept of convenience, I enable the reduction of choice of all manner of things.  Yes, I go to second-hand bookstores (there are two good ones within 10 miles of me), and I enjoy prowling through them, and I go to independent cafes, too -- but not as frequently as I do the others. 

Not nearly.

I've really only myself to blame.