Borders Books Boarded Up
I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised when we found the Borders Books at San Francisco’s Union Square boarded up and closed for business. The increase usage of ebook readers: Kindle, Ipad, Nook; and ease of the online purchase of books, has been a slow death for bookstores. This is more troubling still in the city that boasts of having more bookstores than any other in the nation. This particular Borders was always on our destination list when visiting San Francisco’s Union Square. The store front’s covered entryway now serves as a dry place for the homeless to roll out their sleeping bags and as a shelter, from wind and rain, for tourists waiting for trolley cars. The store was a favorite meeting place for my family after shopping in Union Square and to purchase books. The upstairs coffee shop was an especially inviting perch from which to munch on snicker doodles, sip cappuccinos, and read the books you’d purchased. The added bonus was the view through picture windows of the kalei...