May 25th, 2011 / 4:24 pm
Random

My hometown Borders got closed

They were selling everything, including the bookshelves.  (This is how any number of blog posts begin.)  There were people in large hooded sweatshirts on corners waving signs that said “80-90% off,” and, in the store’s windows, there were giant yellow banners saying the same thing.  I went on the third to last day.  Large sections of the store were roped off, like the cafe area and the music section (though that section had been irrelevant since 2005 anyways).  People wandered around aimlessly, looking totally lost, which was really the only way to inhabit the store since the selection had been so thoroughly decimated it was impossible to look for anything specific.

Bookshelf Special

80% off is no joke

I went through the fiction section, the large print section, the Spanish translation section, the African American special interest section, and the poetry section, which were contiguous along one wall of the store, grabbing any and all things that seemed good.  These are the results (not in any order):

The cover/design of this book seems 100% retarded. (The cover image is blurry, not my camera, and yeah the final “A” in “O’HARA” is obnoxiously close to the cover’s right edge.) I just read a couple poems from this book and was reminded of how I’m not even sure if I like or dislike Frank O’Hara, however it seems like I’m required to like him in order to transcend, so whatever he’s cool.

I confuse these guys in my mind a lot, but if I sit down and think very hard I know Dennis Cooper is the cool one.

Christmas presents for friend and sister. They’ll still probably see the movie first.

I already own this but I haven’t read it but I’m pretty confident I will like it. I think this’ll be a Christmas present to my friend’s dad.

This book has been recommended to me a bunch, though always by non-literary people, yet people whose opinions I generally trust. Does this book hold any weight with the HTMLGIANT crowd?

I feel like Edna St. Vincent Millay is the quintessential flapper.

Joe Meno was the first “approachable” writer I knew about and yet I’ve only read a story collection. Going to try hard to read one of these this summer.

I met Ben Greenman very briefly at Blake’s marathon reading. I overheard him tell a story about being on a panel during which a literary agent said he/she advises his/her authors to title their books beginning with the letter “A” so they appear in Kindles before other books. I’ve retold this story several times always omitting the fact that this is something I overheard and not an actual conversation I had.

This one’s good, right?

Although I’m sure I’d like this book, I have a feeling I will never read it.

They were also selling these totally rad Moby Dick t-shirts. I bought 4, which was all they had left in sizes M and L.

This is what it looks like when I wear 3 Moby Dick t-shirts at the same time. (not sure where the 4th one went)

Tags:

69 Comments

  1. M. Kitchell

      haha, awesome. i only made it to the borders closing in my town (that i used to work at) when shit was like 20% off, seems lame.  my ex-coworkers neglected to actually tell me when shit got down that low and i missed it, oh well.

  2. Anonymous

      oh yeah, i meant to post a picture of my receipt but i guess i can just say it: “You Saved $217.98”

  3. M. Kitchell

      see you saturday bro

  4. Richard Thomas

      some definite scores there – cooper and johnson both good, of course the o’connor, that ben greenman i meant to pick up, the meno’s score for sure – are they closed now or still selling at 80%? hell, i’d send you over there with a wad of cash if i had a quick wish list on me – wait, are you in Chicago? which Borders is this?

  5. Richard Thomas

      some definite scores there – cooper and johnson both good, of course the o’connor, that ben greenman i meant to pick up, the meno’s score for sure – are they closed now or still selling at 80%? hell, i’d send you over there with a wad of cash if i had a quick wish list on me – wait, are you in Chicago? which Borders is this?

  6. Richard Thomas

      some definite scores there – cooper and johnson both good, of course the o’connor, that ben greenman i meant to pick up, the meno’s score for sure – are they closed now or still selling at 80%? hell, i’d send you over there with a wad of cash if i had a quick wish list on me – wait, are you in Chicago? which Borders is this?

  7. gavin

      Denis Johnson is the cool one too . . .and wish I’d been there.  It’s like looting, legally, somehow . . .

  8. gavin

      Denis Johnson is the cool one too . . .and wish I’d been there.  It’s like looting, legally, somehow . . .

  9. gavin

      Denis Johnson is the cool one too . . .and wish I’d been there.  It’s like looting, legally, somehow . . .

  10. Sean

      Holy fuck you just scored!

  11. Adam Wilson

      A Fan’s Notes holds weight. It holds water. It holds up. 

  12. Tummler

      I haven’t read A Fan’s Notes, but Brock Clarke came to my college as part of the book tour for his novel Exley, and by the end of the day, both books seemed very interesting to me and I decided that I’d like to check them out someday.

  13. Anonymous

      yeah i’m in wilmette

  14. postitbreakup

      great post.  some good deals, too.

      that thing about the kindle is funny in  how it indicates marketing think in a publisher, but if anyone was wondering, it’s not exactly true.  if you sort by “collections” (which is the only practical way I know to use the Kindle–that way you can put stuff in “fiction”/”non-fiction” or “biographies” or “reading now”/”about to read” or whatever folders you want), then on your home screen, it has the collections at the top, and then below that any uncollected books are displayed in the order that you most recently opened them, so the stuff you’re reading lately is always on top.  plus there’s “sort by author” which to me is way more helpful than the title sort.  and you can always just search, too.

  15. stephen

      sweet. see you on saturday man

  16. nick

      fan’s notes is ok. i got about 2/3s of the way thru it before putting it down, way like ok we get it yr life had setbacks and stuff enough. also the hemingway trumped up masculine prose became a bit much, a self-loathing, self-defeating mailor or something.

  17. nick

      nice score with the o’connor/cooper/lorrie moore triumvirate.

  18. cameron pierce

      The Borders here closed down at the beginning of the year. My mom was visiting at the time and she bought CliffNotes for the Bible.

  19. Sean

      WTF

  20. Sean

      WTF

  21. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      I didn’t know you were from around these parts-ish.

  22. Tim Jones-Yelvington

       No Taylor Lautner poster? You missed out.

  23. Anonymous

      tinyurl.com/2df4ccp  

  24. Anonymous

       tinyurl.com/2df4ccp

  25. Anonymous

      tinyurl.com/297sxrk

  26. lorian long

      dayum that’s an awesome borders u, um, had there. i will totes buy one of those moby dick tshirts if yr selling.

  27. Anonymous

      tinyurl.com/2df4ccp  

  28. Victoria

      Edna St. Vincent Millay is the quintessential flapper.  Read Trout Fishing in America, Richard Brautigan shouldn’t be missed.  Why was Borders closing?  By me all that Borders ever does is put small wonderful bookstores out of business or close to it.  

  29. Trey

      those shirts *are* rad.

  30. deadgod

      “self-loathing, self-defeating mail[e]r” is accurate, only less skilled with words than abnorman

  31. deadgod

      the irrational, violent god and the unsustainably generous god without the poetry – MARKET ME

  32. Cwinnette

      Exley.  yeah.  tragic and great and yup.

  33. Anonymous

      tinyurl.com/2df4ccp 

  34. dole

      yes those Moby Dick shirts are good.  Any patriotic American father should be pleased to receive Trout Fishing In America as a present.

  35. c2k

      What’s 80% (now) of $163 (price)?

  36. c2k

      Unresolved ending.

  37. deadgod

      When the percentages are in multiples of 10, go to the ‘10%’ gimmick:  cut the first digit to the left of the decimal point.  So, 10% of 163 is a little more than 16.  20% of $163 is twice that 10%:  rounding up, about 33 bucks.  You save – or, pathetically, would have saved – , at “80% OFF”:  $130.

  38. leapsloth14

      One of these things does not belong…

  39. Anonymous
  40. Anonymous

      ta.gg/53c

  41. c2k

      I just noticed that the sign informs us that the “CASHIER WILL DEDUCT EXACT PERCENTAGE AT THE REGISTER.”

      I also noticed that Andrew James Weatherhead left the toilet seat in the upright position.

  42. Anonymous
  43. Anonymous

      ta.gg/53c

  44. Andrewworthingto7

      ive read this 82 times

  45. Eliza Weber

      lucky

      damn

      lemme holler at a moby dick shirt for realzies

  46. Anonymous
  47. Anonymous

      ta.gg/53c

  48. Anonymous
  49. Anonymous
  50. Anonymous
  51. Anonymous

      ta.gg/53c

  52. Anonymous

      ta.gg/53c

  53. Anonymous
  54. Anonymous
  55. Anonymous
  56. Anonymous

      ta.gg/53c

  57. Anonymous

      ta.gg/53c

  58. Anonymous
  59. Anonymous

      ta.gg/53c

  60. Anonymous
  61. Anonymous

      ta.gg/53c

  62. Anonymous
  63. Gonzo

      Does your home town happen to be Wilmette IL??

  64. Anonymous
  65. Wscheffler

      Light Boxes by Shane Jones is one of my favorite reads of last summer. If and when Spike Jones actually progresses on the movie, I imagine it will be a disappointment. Read the book.

  66. Wscheffler

      Light Boxes by Shane Jones is one of my favorite reads of last summer. If and when Spike Jones actually progresses on the movie, I imagine it will be a disappointment. Read the book.

  67. Unother

      Erm, no.

      The only way you’ll get a “bargain” outta Borders is if your Borders is in Missoula or Far Rockaway…

  68. It’s official: Borders is going out of business | Ebooks on Crack

      […] the plus side, if you’re a consumer who loves books, you might find some deals at your nearest Borders over the next few […]

  69. Ebooks are killing bookstores: My take on looming death of Borders « Books « Shaking Riffs « Shaking Magazine

      […] Thankfully, the famous bookstore has not been closed in my hometown (yet).  However, while reading Andrew Weatherhead’s blog post about all the great deals he got from Borders sale with the entire store marked down to […]