I just read an article about the closing of the last bookstore in Laredo, Texas, a city of about 250,000 people. The article said the closest book store to Laredo is now in San Antonio, Texas which is 150 miles away! I must have at least 20 bookstores within a mile of where I live. Not counting you poor residents of Laredo, what is the farthest any SDMB member lives from a book store?
I spent a few months in Laredo for a work project once. It’s a fascinating city, in that it’s one of the few places I’ve ever been to in the United States (perhaps the only place) where I truly felt like I was visiting a foreign country. I’ve been to other border cities, but the Mexican influence seemed stronger in Laredo than anywhere else. Most people talk in an amalgam of English and Spanish, a lot of residents have relatives who live right across the border, and most everything on the radio dial was some form of Norteno, ranchero or Tejano music. Still people there were also more intensely patriotic than most everywhere else I’ve been.
Anyway as culturally interesting as the place is, it doesn’t really have many cultural attractions. When I was there, the city had only one small local history museum, no art galleries and not much of a local music scene. Even the food wasn’t anything to rave about, especially for a city right on the border.
I do recall the little book store they had in the mall, but it mostly carried just the latest best sellers, mystery stories and romance novels, with some reference materials thrown in. Even growing up in a conservative town in the Midwest I was never more than six or seven miles from a decent book store.
Strangely enough, though, they are crazy about hockey.
I started a thread about this recently, and was surprised that
a.) some people hadn’t noticed the issue
b.) others have known about this for ages
c.) others say"well, there are plenty of bookstores near me.
If you’re in the last category, it’s likely you won’t be for long. Borders is in bad financial shape, and will probably be closing many of its stores, if they don’t all go.
I’m relatively lucky in that there’s a Borders in my town. But, aside from a charity-based used bookstore, nothing else is nearby (whereas a few years ago there were lots of bookstores here).
Where I used to work, in Southbridge Massachusetts, you have to drive a very long way to get to a bookstore. Not counting used bookstores, and the specialized one at Sturbridge Village, the closest is the Waldenbooks at Auburn Mall (the Barnbes and Noble that used to be near it closed years ago), and that’s slateed to close this year. There’s a tiny bookstore (Booklover’s Gournet) in Webster, MA, which I highly recommend (I support indy bookstores), but that’s pretty slim pickins to support that large an area.
What’s killing brick-and-mortar bookstores is the online stores, of which Amazon is only the most prominent. Fortunately, that means that the book-loving citizens of Laredo don’t have to drive to San Antonio.
Where I live I have at least six bookstores within 5 miles, including 2 large ones specialising in remainder and second-hand books. I do visit them from time to time, but I also buy books online.
I’m about 150 miles down rio from Laredo and there are 2 Barnes & Noble stores and several other smaller stores here. I haven’t been in a bookstore in probably 7-8 years. I almost exclusively buy at Amazon (usually Kindle) or Alibris for really obscure books. Laredo’s not hurting for lack of a bookstore. Times change.
There’s a good independent bookstore in the town I live in. There’s no used bookstore in town, which is surprising for a college town.
I live about twenty miles from Rochester, NY which has several bookstores. Mostly Borders and Barnes & Nobles with some used book stores and specialized book stores. But there’s no independent general interest book store in the city.
There are some other independents in the area. And some good used bookstores.
The article I read, said that while Barnes & Noble were closing the B. Dalton store in the Laredo mall, there were planning on opening a free standing Barnes & Noble store in the city in 2011.
I just can’t find it in me to mourn the loss of bookstores. The little ones like Waldenbooks didn’t have anything good, and the big ones lost their appeal once Amazon got up steam. I just won’t pay full price for a book when Amazon will give it to me for less, you know?
I can find out more about a book before buying it–and find more references to similar books–online that I could ever find in a bookstore.
Plus, online I’m not distracted by coffee mugs and Jane Austen action figures and pretty stationery, and quite frankly, I can’t afford impulse items like that, not in terms of cash and not in terms of mental/physical space.
They deserve to go.
Aren’t there any bookstores in Nuevo Laredo? 
Nearest bookstore to where I live is about 300 meters away. At least 3 more within reasonable walking distance. Of course we are “the people of the book!” 
Some folks wouldn’t even notice or care. Bill Hicks explains (watch it all–it’s only 2 minutes long–but the pertinent part starts at :49).
Amazon is great when you know what book you want to buy, or even if you have some idea what book you might want to buy.
But I’ve bought tons of books over the years that I never would have imagined even existed if I hadn’t been browsing in a store like Borders. That’s something to be missed.
I hear about far more books than I can read by browsing websites like ALDaily, Salon, and, heck, the Dope.
And you can browse on Amazon, in a variety of ways.
Damn, that’s depressing. I used to live in Rochester, and the bookstores collectively formed one of the few bright sparks. Does this mean that The Village Green and the Oxford Avenue Bookstore and the ones along Monroe Ave. are all gone?
Bummer.
The smaller ones have shut down in my area but the larger ones are still active. What I’ve seen in small towns is a diversification of the store into a dual use venue where books, food and other commodities are sold under one roof. I’m more upset by hardware stores disappearing. I just found out a store I’ve gone to for 45 year is gone. Their selection was highly focused and greatly exceeded that of a box store.
This thread’s inspired me to make sure I go down and spend a little dough at the used book store near my house this weekend. We actually have at least 4 used bookstores in Tallahassee that I can think of, not to mention several Borders and B&Ns-sized choices. I didn’t realize how lucky I am.
And for the price of shipping on a couple books from Amazon, I can pick up an extra 2 - 5 used paperbacks. Long live the local bookstore!
Do we know anything about the quality of Laredo’s public library?
I hear about lots of books, too. But there are lots of books I DON’T hear about. I want the opportunity to see them as well. In fact, I have hundreds of books at home that have never been mentioned in the media.
I don’t even know the Oxford Avenue Bookstore so it must have closed some time ago (I first moved into the area around 1989). The Village Green stores went out of business when the big chains moved into the area (Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Media Play). It was real depressing - they slowly closed their stores one by one, with the remaining stores having half empty shelves and closed off sections. It was like watching somebody die of a lingering disease.
There is at this point only one used bookstore left in the Monroe Avenue area. The area as a whole is not as thriving as it used to be. Like downtown, it’s slowly lost its customers to the suburbs like Henrietta, Greece, and Webster.
I moved out in '83, so some time in those sic years the Oxford Avenue (at the corner of Oxford and Park) must have closed.
Village Green stores? There was only one when I was there – Monroe near the bridge over the inner ring. It was a great independent store, and at one time sold used books, too.
The big chains were already there at Marketplace Mall by '83, but you still had the Waldenbooks at Midtown Plaza and lots of books at Scrantoms there. I understand the Plaza itself is now gone. Sibley’s had books, and just about every mall seemed to have one bookstore, or at least one store that sold books.
I suppose I’m not surprised – the bookstores have virtually disappeared from the Boston area as well – as unthinkable as that is, aside from the college bookstores and college press bookstores and the Big Stores (the Harvard Book Store and Brattle Books being two happy exceptions – and Brattle is a used bookshop)