Not Barnes & Noble!

I love Barnes & Noble.  When I am in the States I always look for their stores which, from the outside,  look somewhat like Chapters stores.  They are my second favourite big box book store after McNally Robinsion on Grant Street in Winnipeg, a book store so wonderful it is almost worth taking a trip to that prairie city just to visit it.

Like McNally Robinson, the Barnes & Noble stores have a neat little restaurant (food not as good as M-R however) and one can carry books or  magazines from the store into the coffee area and read them there, just as one can in McNally Robinsion.

Barnes and Noble is the last bricks and mortar large chain standing in the US. So it was with dismay to read in the New York Times and other papers that B&N is crumbling, in trouble and restructuring, downsizing and, roumour has it, putting the squeeze on publishers for cheaper books and a higher payment for top spots in the store.

Meanwhile the bulldozer, Amazon, rolls along e-wise.

I always stop at Barnes & Noble in Duluth.  We are used to hear about small booksellers folding.  The loss of the Women's Bookstore on Harbour Street in Toronto was a blow.  When I find a good small bookshop, it feels like a victory.  But to lose Barnes and Noble would be a disaster.