Ted Striphas, author of The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control (now available in paperback, recently surveyed left behind when his local Borders bookstore closed in Bloomington, Indiana on his blog The Late Age of Print.

The store was, needless to say, a shell of its former itself but among the leftover books (mostly genre fiction), empty shelves, random barista equipment, and cleaning agents (also for sale), was a computer display, which read, “Your Favorite Book Store. Now Digital” (see picture above). Here’s Striphas’s description of the image:

This final image shows a computer terminal located on what used to be the customer service counter. Instead of facing the customer service agent, it had been turned around to face the customers, as if to greet us as we entered the store on its final days. The display read, “Your Favorite Book Store. Now Digital.” I guess we know how Borders is imagining its future — assuming, of course, that it has one.