It’s apparently common knowledge that two of the nation’s largest bookstores, Borders and Barnes & Noble, are in financial trouble. While both stores are still functioning, it would be a dark day indeed if either of those two stores went out of business.

I buy almost all of my books from Borders, simply because they offer a better discount program than B&N. However, I’m not averse to shopping at B&N, especially since they sometimes carry items that Borders does not. But if one of those stores went out of business…then the other would have no longer have a reason to one-up the competition with great sales, discount programs, and so on. The exact same thing happened when Circuit City went under; they were in a running battle with Best Buy as far as sales were concerned, and I’ve noticed Best Buy’s discounts have waned since CC went the way of the dodo.

It would be even worse if both B&N and Borders went under. Then, what option is left to us? Amazon‘s great, but not if you only want to buy one book. After shipping’s factored in, you’re going to end up paying more than MSRP! (Obviously, this doesn’t apply to coffee table books and the like where you can often use their “Free Super Saver Shipping” offer.) Sure, you could solve this issue by ordering multiple books, but you shouldn’t have to do that in the first place. When a new book comes out that I want to pick up, I don’t want to feel pressured into buying a few more along with it. Besides, you can only read one book at a time, at least until we’ve evolved an extra pair of eyes. Last but not least, if brick-and-mortar bookstores disappeared…what would be Amazon’s incentive to keep their prices low? It’s the CC/BB problem all over again.

Paying $10+ shipped for a measly paperback had better not become a reality in the near future. Not only that, the loss of physical stores means impulse book purchases will dry up, too. Nothing beats just nabbing a random book at the bookstore, taking it home, and reading it. Let’s hope Borders and B&N get back into the black, otherwise we’re all in trouble.