David, that is precisely why though I love independent bookstores, I was never upset when a Borders or B&N opened up shop in less urban area. Sometimes that's the only place available to "hang". And I include libraries, because most libraries around here have extremely limited hours and they don't allow food/drink (for good reason). Plus you're not supposed to talk!

There was an article recently that the B&N in Georgetown is closing and about the loss of a "third place" - a place to gather that's not home or work - that also doesn't require you buy things (i.e., most people do buy a coffee or something when they go to the cafe, but it's not mandatory).

There really is a huge craving in American culture, I think, for that Third Place experience.

I know I wanted it as a kid and going to the mall was the only near equivalent (and we all did it), or we'd go to Cocoanut Grove, but that was so small and limited. Like, even a fairly unexciting neighborhood in San Francisco like the 9th and Irving intersection of the Inner Sunset is roughly fifteen times more interesting than Cocoanut Grove was in the 70s.

But I would've lived at Borders if I'd had one near me as a teenager. It would've been pure heaven.

There's a lot of talk in library circles about the concept of the "third place," and how libraries can become that third space for their patrons and communities. It's a useful idea and makes a lot of sense.

And I grew up pretty close to a good-sized city with great indie bookstores, but when the Borders opened up at the North Shore Mall it was a huge deal for my book-loving family and me. I remember we went and spent HOURS there the first weekend it was open. It's where I found and started reading and buying weird magazines I'd never seen before, like SageWoman and Parabola, where someone recommended to me Kelly Link's Stranger Things Happen which then became one of my most beloved books, where I bought tons of great and interesting CDs, where I played my guitar in the cafe and hung out with friends. I have a lot of great memories of that place.

I'm wondering what cities could do to foster a space like that.

I'm thinking you could take an old abandoned downtown department store and turn it into an arcade kind of venue, where you rented out space to smaller dealers that couldn't afford a large retail space.

That's basically how the record stalls in Camden Town (London) work. Certainly things like Record Fairs work on the same principle.

In New Orleans there's an arcade full of individual antiques dealers and it's fun to wander through it because they each had their own kind of stock and taste.

I've been in antiques "malls" which are set up like that, but they're mostly outside the city. I believe that the main reason the B&N is moving is that the rent there (prime space on a main street in a commercial area) went too high and that a major retailer is willing to pay the exorbitant rent. Which is a problem in the city - rents are so high (at least here) that they pretty much have to get income from every square foot.

There's a lot of talk in library circles about the concept of the "third place," and how libraries can become that third space for their patrons and communities. It's a useful idea and makes a lot of sense.

My local library was such a place for me growing up, but unfortunately it's since fallen victim to Screaming Children Syndrome like most other public spaces. Hard to settle back and lose yourself in a good book when every paragraph is punctuated by a high-pitched shriek or a toddler stomping in circles around your chair. I don't remember it being nearly that noisy when I was a kid, and I don't know if it was because without computers and a big DVD selection everyone who stopped by was actually there to read or if the staff have just given up reminding people to be quiet as a lost cause.

The founder of the Gutenberg Project has died.

Thank you, Mr/Ms GProject. That was an awesome idea, and if there is a heaven, I hope yours has ALL THE BOOKS.

Thank you, Michael Hart. A geek with a mission can change the world.

(I hope the "used home remedies" line in his obit doesn't mean he could have been with us longer if he had gone to the doctor.)