Was this my last visit to a Borders bookstore? On our way back from our vacation at San Simeon, we stopped by what seemed to be one of the last Borders bookstores that was still “open” somewhere in Oxnard/Ventura outlets. I use the air quotes because the remaining Borders that are still “open” for business are not the same Borders like before. They are now barren buildings with rejected books on table tops just like what I remember my first Borders visit in Fullerton as a college student. Despite their the unappealing conditions, that will never stopmbe from visiting any bookstore. I always walk into a bookstore in anticipation of finding a hidden jewel in the massive collections of stacked books that appear to be old and out of mode especially in the subjects of general computing and some science books. Anyhow, this visit did not disappoint. I found the following three books:
- Information Design – The Knowledge Architects’s Toolkit by Graziella Tonfoni
- The Emotion Machine by Marvin Minsky
- Foundations of Computer Security by David Salomon
I can’t wait to crack the covers, especially the Foundations of Computer Security, which is a timely find, since I’ve been recently been bitten by the CyberSecurity topic. It’s strange how some books just pop out a me while I’m browsing books. I plan to write a posting on that very topic. Anyhow, the way I found the Information Design book was like destiny. I browsed through all the books in the science section, from the top left hand corner all the way to the bottom right hand corner of the second shelf and low and behold, the last book was Information Design – The Knowledge Architect’s Toolkit. My brain has a bank of keywords related to things that get me going, two of which are “Information Design” and “Knowledge”. This caused two things to react, a smirk and my hand to quickly grab the book. I flipped through the pages and activated my standard quality metrics for a good book, such as chapter topics on the headings of the pages, font types, topic organization, illustrations, feel of the book, keywords that pop-out as I speed read through some of the pages. This all happens in seconds mind you, it’s mysterious but it works for me. I love the moments that lead to choosing a book. All my senses take part in the decision. Weird but it’s true.
Anyways, back to the main purpose of this post, is this my last visit to a real life Borders bookstore? It might be unless I can make it to the Borders in Brea which is nearing its closeout. If I don’t make it, then this might very well be my last visit. It was a bitter sweet visit for me. My family also came out with something. I hope my kids understand the importance of this visit. I think they do because whenever they see a Borders now,they always tell me what they know, that Borders is closing. Ugh.