Borders is Closing Its Doors

That's right, Borders is attempting to liquidate all of their stores and close down, for good. 

Is anyone else as saddened by this as I am? Borders has the BEST coupons! I love to use them to get the new releases at a great price.

I found a few useful questions and answers on the Chicago Sun-Times website. This is from the article "What You Need to Know About Borders Closing", and can be found HERE:

Q. When will sales start?
A. Liquidation sales start Friday and usually take eight to 10 weeks to complete. Stores close as soon as the inventory is sold, so they could close sooner if the merchandise sells quickly. 

Q. When will the stores close?
A. The store sites are slated to be sold by the end of September. The first wave of property auctions will take place from the end of August until the beginning of September, followed by a second wave from mid-September until the end of September. Most Chicago stores will be part of the second wave, said Andy Graiser, co-president of DJM Realty, the Melville, N.Y. company in charge of finding bidders for and disposing of the stores. 

Q. How good will the bargains be?
A. Opening discounts start at up to 40 percent on all merchandise. The prices at which the discounts are taken are the level that Borders charged prior to its bankruptcy filing. Roughly $700 million of inventory will be on sale.

 As sad as I am to see them go, I will most definitely be hitting up those sales, and probably multiple times. The thing that I have to remind myself is not to go all super crazy, because 10-30% isn't a good deal when I can get a better discount online.

What About the other Booksellers?

I think what scares me is what a major bookseller closing could mean for other book sellers. As much as I love the fact that e-readers and online stores make reading and shopping for books easier, I am in LOVE with bookstores. I love to physically be able to pick up a book and flip through it before I buy it. I also use bookstores as the time for me to escape; It's my me-time.

I'm hoping that this doesn't happen to the other booksellers out there! If a major bookseller can go under, what does that say about the more indie book sellers? It seems to me that Powells (my favorite local store) always has customers in there, shopping, so hopefully they'll stay afloat!


So, is this affecting you at all?

In My Mailbox - July 16, 2011

In My Mailbox is a meme that is hosted by The Story Siren. It's a fun way to share what books we got for the week. They can be from publishers, the library, bought, or whatever. They don't have to be from the mailbox. Mine usually aren't! 

Holy  bananas! This week was awesome. Let me show you!

Look at that beautiful pile of books! 

Bought:

A Need So Beautiful  | Suzanne Young

Goodreads

I went to Suzanne's signing this week! I'm editing the pictures for it, so as soon as I'm done, I'll post all about it!

Tiger's Curse | Colleen Houck

Goodreads

Colleen was at Suzanne's signing and agreed to sign it for me. :) She had her own signing 2 days later, but I couldn't go to it. :( 

The Darkest Secret (Lords of the Underworld #7) | Gena Showalter

Goodreads

Um, so I meant to buy the one with all the short stories, but I got distracted and picked up this one instead. I only just finished the 3rd book, but I figure I'll get to it someday. :P

For Review:

Wildefire | Karsten Knight

Goodreads

I cannot even tell you how excited I am!! I asked for an ARC forever ago, not really expecting to get one. Well, the publisher sent me a gorgeous finished copy!! Oh my gosh! I was so surprised. Freaking sweet.

Won:

Thirteen Reasons Why | Jay Asher

Goodreads

I won this from I Eat Words! Yay! I've heard it's amazing. Thank you! 

Won from Armchair BEA:

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making | Catherynne M. Valente

Goodreads

This book is so whimsical and pretty! 

It's the First Day of School... Forever! | R.L Stine

Goodreads

I used to love these books when I was younger! I thought it was kind of neat to have an Advanced Readers Copy of an R.L. Stine book.

 It's a Book | Lane Smith

Goodreads

This book is like a children's picture book. It's awesome, and I think it's perfect for any book lover. :) So cute and funny! I should do a review of it.

Ignore the copy of Halfway to the Grave, it was from last week. I included it in the picture... who knows why. I guess I was still excited about it. :)

Shatter Me Has a Cover!

It feels like we have waited forever for the reveal of the cover for Shatter Me, doesn't it?? It was finally shown on MTV Hollywood Crush yesterday.

I already had a total fan-girl post a couple weeks ago that gave all the little details about the book: Shatter Me Post. It includes the synopsis, trailer, and I even included a link to a sound clip where you can learn how to say Tahereh! All that post was missing was the cover, and now we have it!

Here it is:

 

So, what do you think?

Me....well, I think I like it. I'm not sure yet. There are some aspects I really love, like the shatters behind her and the font of Tahereh's name. I think I will wait until I see it in person to say whether or not I love it. Perhaps I was expecting a more ambiguous and darker cover? Either way, I still want to read it more than any other book out there!!

Review: Wither

Title: Wither (The Chemical Garden Trilogy: Book One)
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon and Schuster BFYR
Goodreads

Synopsis (via Goodreads):

What if you knew exactly when you would die?  

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb — males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape — to find her twin brother and go home.  

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

Review:

This was a very strange, but fantastical book.

I think I am a sucker for books where there is a biological problem with people and they either die, become zombies, or whatnot. I read this book in less than 24 hours!

I have to tell you that I was afraid to read Wither. It had been the object of my desire for SO LONG that I was afraid to read it and be disappointed. I bought it and then it sat and sat and sat on my bookshelf.

So, did it live up to my expectations? Well, I can't really answer that because it wasn't what I expected at all! I knew going in that this was about polygamy, and a couple of boys, but that was about it. It was about so much more complicated than that!

There were quite a few things in Wither that I think were necessary to help illustrate the deeper issues going on in this world. It's easy to get offended by some of the stuff that DeStefano decided to include, but I think she needed to cross that line to show how messed up things really are for these characters. Of course, this is just how I interpreted things.

The action starts right at the beginning of the book, and sets the perfect pace. There are bits and pieces of the past that are spread throughout the book, and I think that the way DeStefano did that was perfect. We know right away that something is happening to Rhine, and we get thrown right into the confusion and are scared right along with her. Nothing is concrete, and she has to tread lightly and try to piece it all together.

Overall, Wither was a unique and intriguing read! The characters were easy to attach to, the storyline was great, and I don't think I've read anything quite like it. The only thing that I didn't like was that I felt like it lulled a bit (just a tiny bit) and then all of a sudden something happened without enough buildup. It really didn't bother me all that much though!

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of Book Two in the Chemical Garden Trilogy: Fever. I just can't imagine where it will all go from here!