Borders Bookstores.

I knew them well.

I once lived across the street from one.

They were my client briefly at my last agency years ago.

Today (July 22), Borders officially started its going-out-of-business sales. So all of those expensive illustrator books you only browsed are probably on hand at a reasonable price. Get 'em before they are gone.

This year, I became an Amazon Kindle fanatic. I won't lie. I consume almost a book a week on my ereader, and I'm eliminating the clutter of fully-packed booked shelves from my life. Critics can point their fingers at me for the store chain's demise. They would be wrong. I love my ereader, but I still love being in a bookstore.

A bookstore is a house of ideas. Being among them stimulate me differently than reading from a Kindle. Picking up things... People watching... Talking to favorite authors... They are great ways to trigger your creativity. You can't constantly do that in the vacuum of your cubicle and computer. And you can't do that on an ereader.

I still believe the digital and physical bookstores can co-exist if people take the time to see the value in both. Unfortunately, our attention spans are so short, we don't make much time to much of anything.

So I challenge you to visit a bookstore and your local library and I doubt you'll be able to walk out of them without a good idea or two – or merchandise.

If you don't support them, you will miss them when they are gone.