Going to Borders and Buying a Book at Amazon

There's a reason I haven't been posting lately. The "reason" is on the left and his name is Clovis. My last dog, Rosie, was a border collie and she was the very best of companions. She loved being smarter than every other dog and was proud to be able to anticipate my needs (i.e. I need you to walk near me on the sidewalk and stop with me at cross-streets -- without a leash). Rosie died in January and I thought I wouldn't get another dog. My children are grown and I like to travel. Funny how much I missed the welcome of a dog when coming home, though, and it didn't go away. Doggie faces in car windows made me wistful.

Welcome Clovis, the toy poodle. Smart, attentive, courageous, calm, he doesn't shed and he looks like a little toasted marshmallow.

Anyway, I'd trained Rosie to do all the usual stuff using a border collie handbook, but that was ages ago. I thought it might be nice to see what's changed in the last 15 years and went to the local Borders. (Actually, Clovis was getting groomed at the next door Petsmart, something Rosie at which would have rolled her working dog eyes). The Dog section in Borders is conveniently located next to the cafe, and I browsed and read and sipped and browsed until I found the perfect fit: The Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller.

The problem was that I didn't really want it as a paperback. You see, I have WAY too many books on shelves as it is. Plus, my partner and I have gotten used to sharing a Kindle account and reading books simultaneously. So, right there in Borders, I opened my iPad and logged into their free WiFi. I opened the Kindle app and checked to see if they had the Miller book. Yes. $9.99. (Four dollars cheaper than the paperback which totally makes sense to me. I won't buy anything over $9.99 -- particularly as most Kindle books have terrible formatting and stupid amounts of typos. Where do these files come from?) (Why Kindle and not Borders for the book? Because having my ebooks scattered all over a dozen different apps makes me nervous. Wouldn't it be lovely if there was one app that read any ebook?) A few minutes later -- after returning the Miller paperback to its correct position on the shelf -- I walked out of Borders, grateful for the coffee, the WiFi, and the excellent browsing experience.

What about if if bookstores became more like libraries and began to stock one copy of everything? If you want the digital version, log in here; if you want the hard copy, send an order to the in-store printer.

If I owned Borders, I'd make a branded app for any and all digital reading devices that accepts books (and allows the transfer of books) from any and all apps. Give a discount to in-store buyers. Make the transfer of books from other apps slightly cumbersome so that folks will want to buy Borders rather than spend time messing around, managing files.