Do you have any local bookstores left? SF has gone from having 3 Barnes & Nobles and 3 Borders to having none - and as a result the local bookstores are thriving again (at least the few that managed to survive this long). So I'd actually count it a positive thing to see the big retailers struggling, although I realize that outside of a major metropolitan area like this there may not be many small bookstores that have survived so it may be specific to here.
You're right. I'll survive if they go. The little stores will be there and perhaps actually grow to fill the space left behind. And Amazon is awesome. But I love me some giant mega bookstores. If I remember right, back when they built the first Barnes here it was supposed to be the second largest Barnes in the nation. I know that some people dislike or even despise such large chain stores. But I've always thought these big Borders and Barnes stores were beautiful wonders of the world. Not without feeling sorry for the little operations that fell before them. Oh well, yeah, maybe things will come back around for those little, local stores.
Make no mistake, we are in a golden age for television. It's arguably better than it's ever been, and it probably won't ever be as good as it is now. This is being driven largely by cable subscriber revenues and the licensing fees cable systems pay to carry channels, but we've probably got less than a decade before the combination of rising rates and non-cable options fragment the market enough that licensing fees will have to drop.
Amen. Just keep making us those Games of Thrones and the rest. Not looking forward to that golden age ending. Let's hope new avenues for great content creation and distribution emerge to take its place.