This is a Concept?

I visited the much-heralded Borders Concept Store on Monday, and I wasn't terribly impressed. Overall the feeling was of something cheap; more like a Media Play than a regular book store. A lot of half-height shelves but no clear organization or clear walking paths.

The highly-touted graphic novel island was just a set of half-height shelves near the science fiction & fantasy section. There's a funky display hanging overhead that isn't labeled antyhing (unlike the Cooking island) but does have giant cubes with manga characters (and Spider-Man). It was clearly dominated by manga, with the amime dvds shelved adjacent. It wasn't any larger than the manga & graphic novels section at Borders #1 in downtown Ann Arbor, which is much more impressive as a gigantimus tower of manga & GNs that lies at the entrance to the youth & genre fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, mysteries) sections.

No doubt I'll return to the new Borders store, as it is much more conveniently located than the other two Ann Arbor locations. But I wouldn't exactly call it a huge success from a promotional or marketing perspective. Still, it's good that Borders has a store with which they plan on experimenting; maybe they'll hit the right formula one of these days...

New Library Comics: Week of February 17, 2008

Here's a list of the comics we added to our library collection last week:


Irwin, Jane. Vögelein vol. 2 : old ghosts / Ann Arbor, Mich : Fiery Studios, 2003-

McNeil, Carla Speed. Finder book 1 : sin-eater / Annapolis Junction, MD : Lightspeed Press, c2007-

Obrist, Hans-Ulrich. Robert Crumb / Köln : König, 2006.

Reumann, Helge. Elvis Road. Oakland, Calif. : Buenaventura Press, c2007.


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