Breaking Borders

The internet is full of heartbreak tonight. Borders employees across the country report bounced paychecks. In some cases, this caused employees to default on rent, mortgage and utility payments. Employees from the closed stores report that cafe scavengers (see my previous Blog post) are now doubling their demands of entitlement. Author Michele Lee, who is also a Borders employee and whose store is one of those being closed, is offering a day-by-day Blog about the experience.

It's all so sad and infuriating. That list of closing stores includes at least two dozen I've signed at over the last decade. These were stores full of good people who loved books and loved helping people who loved books, and now they're fucked because of a succession of barely literate corporate slugs, all apparently cloned from Wile E. Coyote, who thought selling books was like selling groceries, and a generation of slothful nu-yuppies whose only sense of self-worth came from hanging out in the store — not to purchase something — but to show the world how oh-so-fucking-important they were because they were writing on their laptops or chattering on their cellphones while their mutant hell-spawn ran rampant in the children's section.

So what's next on the horizon? Well, according to Ecolibris, Barnes & Noble "doesn't look too good and bankruptcy is becoming a more realistic threat".

In a few weeks, I'll be announcing the F.U.K.U. Independent Bookseller & Library Outreach Program (I'm just waiting for a few more pieces to fall into place). In the meantime, if there is a Borders in your area that's closing, consider stopping by with bottled water or donuts for the employees. Small gestures like that would be appreciated. These people are in Hell. And for all my friends at Borders stores — both open and closing — across the country, my thoughts are with you. You have always been incredibly gracious and supportive of my work and my readers, and I hope that all of your stories have happy endings.