Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Goodbye Barnes & Noble


Barnes & Noble, a corporately-owned chain bookstore will be closing its Glendale location doors on May 1st of this year. Its location on Glendale Ave at the Glendale Fashion Center, on the northern side of Glendale was an excellent, quieter location because it was so removed from the faster-paced (if you can call any part of Glendale that!) style on Brand Blvd and Central, where the Glendale Galleria and Marketplace are located.

I patronized this location for years. Since 2000, when its doors opened, I fostered my salacious love for books and reading. In high school, I chose this place to interview for a business computer class. I spent long nights reading books, buried in the Fiction & Literature section. Prior to 2000, I shopped at Borders, and even before that, I did my business at the small bookstore Waldenbooks, which is now [practically obsolete. I have nothing against Borders, it's all the same, it's all books. Barnes & Noble is much higher-brow. I love the design and the classiness that Barnes & Noble exudes. The art on the wall is decorated with the covers of the most well-known and canonized works of literature. A Starbucks resides in every location. While I myself am not a regular patron or supporter of Starbucks, it trumps Borders coffee any day, all day.

When I spent two years at Glendale Community College, this B&N location was not too far from the campus. It was a cozy home away from home. Sadly though, as I grew older and poorer, B&N had little time in my own personal schedule and I strayed. I went to libraries to read because *le gasp* the books are free?! I am an English major, hence my requirement and general love for books. If you were to catch me on my current college campus Cal State Northridge, you will see me carrying several in my bookbag or one or two in my hands. Mind, I don't choose to carry such a high volume of books. My professors do, those damn literary...doctors...ha!

When this location closes, I do wish that the building managers not replace it with some low-brow, low-culture, vapid mind-numbing store. I want this little strip mall to keep its integrity. This strikes the perfect balance because it is neither too yuppie nor does it lack culture. That's how Glendale is anyway, which is why I enjoy living in the area. Okay, I live in Eagle Rock but other than really good food and Filipinos, ya got nothing there.

Further research led me to realize that this Barnes & Noble location is not permanently closing its doors to the Glendale community. It will be moving to the new Americana on Brand, the fancy, hoity-toity shopping center that will be across the street from the ... ugh mall. Oh yeah, fuck that, it is a mall and it will be even more pretentious than the Glendale mall ever could be. The fact that this B&N was located away from the mall was a prime reason for why I went there. They sold out. They went over to join their real yuppie friends because they couldn't hang with the real people on Glendale Ave.

Americana will be a knock-off of The Grove in West L.A. Here is a conceptual drawing of your fate, Glendale.

Oh. Oh well. Barnes & Noble didn't even have the book I wanted when I went in for a visit the other day. And they charge too much, even at 40% clearance prices. I wonder what time the library opens today...