Alphabetical Borders
The book on Borders seems to be closing, with news of the chain's woes snowballing. But, bad puns and cliches aside, the saddest notion, for me, about the Borders war is that I have to refer to the company as a chain. Certainly, I was not above watching the publishing news warily to make sure I still had time to use my Borders gift cards_thank goodness Christmas came when it did. But the Borders I relinquished those pieces of plastic to is not the Borders I became acquainted with as a sophmore in college. OK, now you'll know I'm old when I tell you that my first several visits to Borders occurred back when it was just the one store, on State Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was, hands down, the go-to college bookstore for any student of English language and literature, whether studying at the U-M or, as I was, at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. The professors and upperclassmen told us the same thing: don't even bother to look f...