Borders closing a store near me, something interesting though...

[Achronos]

It's been about a month now since the Borders next to me has announced its closure and liquidating what it has. Books are on sale, about 25% or more.

But what drew my attention was going into the Religion section. Many shelves were empty, except one. Which one? Christianity. In fact I wasn't the only one to notice this, a couple in the same section remarked that there were still many books on Christianity while other religions looked bare.

Now granted Christianity has a bigger section for itself, but it was odd that it seemed very full and barely any books taken from its shelves.

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but are people just tired of Christianity, they want to pursue whatever new age pagan nonsense that's out there? I was a bit startled seeing this, and considering the recent trend of those who classify themselves as Christian is declining, I feel a grave undertone that is pervading in this country. Not only in this store, but I went to the supermarket as well and just observing people's facial expressions and body language, there seems to be this sense of danger or fear. A sense that the things we fill in our lives are empty and never long term gratification. Maybe I'm wrong on this..

[Keble]

The Borders here always had a pretty lame religion section. Also, the Adventists have a huge bookstore which is much better stocked, even if you are a crazy liberal like me; their bible selection, for instance, is awesome. I did manage to nab a Philip Yancey book at the Borders closing in Bowie, though.

[IsmiLiora]

Not surprised. Totally agree with Keble, they have a lame religion section.

At my Borders, they have an Orthodox/Catholicism Section. Guess what? Not ONE Orthodox book.

I spent $25 at their $1 book sale last month, so my husband banned me from visiting one of the closing stores up north. 

[LizaSymonenko]

I had my car in the shop yesterday.  While it was getting fixed, I walked down the road to the Barnes and Noble.  I was there for over 3 hours!  I love bookstores!

However, when I meandered towards the "religion" section - there was an Eastern Religions section, New Age, Christian Inspiration and Bibles.  There were racks and racks on Catholicism.... but, not one book on Orthodoxy, or anything I would care to read.     

...so, I went off to the Mystery section!

[Iconodule]

The Orthodox/ Catholic section will usually have only 2 Orthodox books, if it has any: Met. Kallistos' The Orthodox Church and the Olga Savin translation of Way of a Pilgrim (published by Shambhala) which is actually a great edition.

[IsmiLiora]

Our store didn't even have that!

We spent the better part of an hour flipping through the saint books to discover...nope, not one of them dedicated to Orthodox saints.

I'm sure my priest was very amused when we ranted to him about it in one of our meetings. I downloaded a few books for the Kindle: Coniaris' book, the Divine Liturgy (wish I could find it in Greek, too), and a New Testament Greek Vocabulary book. Maybe I should reconsider and get a Kindle?

Noooo, I like my books too much!

And our local Family Christian Bookstore had the RCC Bibles in a completely different section. And there were only TWO of them. I'm afraid to find out about their Orthodox offerings. The website has some choices, but the store is a different story.

Sigh.

Anyway Apsophet, I agree with the New Age Pagan bit. I was just standing in front of the Tarot card section for a second when these girls ran up to me. "Do you know anything about these? Can you tell us? We're wondering how to use them!"

I should have segued into the Bible or something, but I was too stunned and I just walked away.

Deepak Chopra's Jesus book got an entire shelf and NO Orthodox books? Oh Lord.

I think that people are just caught up in the church scandals (priest sexual scandals, televangelist scandals, etc.) and they can't see past that and look at the faith anymore. Science is cool and any sort of faith is out. Oh, except faith in yourself, that is.

[podkarpatska]

Well, it is the free market forces in action, not a conspiracy in my opinion.

[synLeszka]

Hmm, the book stores here seem to have plenty of Orthodox books even though there are less than a 1% Orthodox here.

[Carl Kraeff (Second Chance)]

Hmm, the book stores here seem to have plenty of Orthodox books even though there are less than a 1% Orthodox here.

You are fortunate to live in an enlightened community.

[minasoliman]

I hate the fact that the freehold borders is closing.  I loved studying there 

[Asteriktos]

The Borders here has absolutely nothing, but then it's much smaller than the Barnes and Noble. The B&N usually has a copy of The Orthodox Church, one or two volumes of the Philokalia, and sometimes another Orthodox book or two. Then there are some books published by Catholics that could be considered Orthodox as well, such as works by St. Augustine and whatnot.  The rest of the religion section is actually pretty large, it's too bad there isn't more traditional stuff. One of the guys that works there goes to the local Antiochian parish and looks after the Church bookstore, but I doubt/guess he doesn't have much say in what books they get in.

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