Border’s is…was…my favorite brick and mortar store. Well, my favorite big chain brick and mortar store anyway. Barnes and Noble store interiors seem just a bit more pretentious, but you have to give them credit. B&N was quicker to adapt to the new Internet reality than their rival. My favorite book store of all is R. J. Julia in Madison. I’m taking a writing workshop there with author and teacher Matthew Dicks and I just bought his novel Something Missing.

I admit that I buy most of my books from Amazon, most of my music, too. It’s fast, easy, convenient and cheaper that most retail operations. I know the Internet is killing stores like Borders, but you can’t compete with fast, easy, convenient and cheap. That’s what’s killing newspapers. It’s fast, easy, convenient and cheap to get the news online. Who wants to schlep out to the end of the driveway every morning in the rain, sleet or snow, except our most loyal and diehard readers. God bless ‘em. Like me, they want a newspaper (that daily catalog of human events) to hold in their hands.

Speaking of newspapers, my nephew the lawyer says that the reason London newspapers are doing so well is that they always run a picture of a topless babe on page three. In fact, the term “page three girl” is common in England. I wonder when American newspapers are going to get hip and do the same. What the hell, we’re the Titanic in print. Might as well go down to the bottom with a little soft core porn. That might add a touch more excitement to that trip to the end of the driveway.