Bye Bye Borders and hello Kindle?

If you didn't know, Borders Bookstores are closing. Well, most Borders books stores are closing, a few of them are being bought out by the Books-a-million chain which is good news I guess for patrons there.

The local Borders in Augusta is having a "Going out of Business" sale which has almost everything marked down 50-70% (at least this week) and surprising has a pretty good selection of stock still on the shelves. The Rosetta Stone software marked down 50% is tempting as well as the travel section of course. Borders never had much of a Railroad section to begin with...

From buying 90% of my books in physical stores a couple of years ago, I've gone full circle and now purchase at least 80% of my books on-line either from Amazon or at auctions on eBay.  A lot of those books from Amazon are for my kindle, which I really find myself reading on more each day it seems.


The electronic reader has been pegged as one of the reasons that brick and mortar stores such as Borders are failing. Many consumers are happy to save a few bucks (and maybe a few trees) and have their books to go electronically.

I still enjoy visiting bookstores, even chain stores such as Barnes & Noble, but even more used bookstores like the Book Tavern in Augusta or Ed's Editions here in Columbia. I still love to find an old book looking for a new home which I probably would of never bought on-line.

And I still enjoy reading physical books. Some books are just not the same on a kindle or PC or iPad. In particular books which include a lot of images (such as many railroad books) just are "better" in my opinion in print. Plus lots of older books are not available for e-readers (at least yet)

So for now, I find myself halfway into the digital bookcase and with way too may "analog" books according to my wife at least :)

Be sure to check out the rest of my photography at http://genebowker.com/

Rails Across Canada

Rails Across Canada by Tom Murray gives a great recap of the history and operations of Canada's two biggest railroads Canadian Pacific and Canadian National. I learned a lot about the history of the lines. Being an American, I think at times I forget about how hard it was to connect Canada.



Read more of the review here

Review: The Blue Ridge Parkway (Postcard History Series)

On my last trip in October to the Blue Ridge Parkway, I purchased "The Blue Ridge Parkway" from the Postcard History Series books at one of the visitor centers.

Despite it's name, it is actually a collection of historic postcards all the way from Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway in between.

The book written by Karen Hall with the Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway has a great variety of postcards. Some of them are of the motels, and other business establishments that the area was famous for. Others are "real-photo" type cards highlighting areas along the BRP and the surrounding area.

If you grew up going to the Blue Ridge or the Smokies then this is a book you will really enjoy as it will bring back memories of childhood. If you didn't grow up in the area, you'll understand a lot more about the "days of old" in the area when you hear about it.