“The Books of Laredo”

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

(Based on the news report that Laredo, with the closing of its lone B. Daltons, will be the largest city in the U.S.A. without a single bookstore)

As I read a book on the streets of Laredo.
A book in my hand in Laredo I read,
I finished that book and desired a new one
And so to the bookstore I promptly did head.

Laredo’s a city that’s found in Webb County
Where nearly one half of the people don’t read.
But I wasn’t worried ‘cause we had one bookstore
And surely one bookstore is all that we need.

The bookstore we had was a simple B. Daltons
It had no café for a coffee or scone
But still, on the plus side, you could buy a book there,
Unlike the library, these books you could own.

But when I arrived at the Dalton Laredo
A sign in the window devoured my eye
It said, “We’ve enjoyed serving all of our patrons
Yet now it appears we must tell you good-bye.

“Full forty-nine stores will be closing by year’s end
And of those four dozen this store will be one.
Too bad this whole country is turning illiterate,
We hoped we’d survive, but it seems we are done.

“Because in addition to people not reading
The on-line booksellers are killing us, too.
And so we are packing up lock stock and barrel
We doubt you will miss us; we sure won’t miss you.

“’Cause day after day we’ve been sitting here empty
While you’re all off texting or watching TV.
We find it frustrating in this smog-filled city
What passes for discourse is “OMFG.”

“It’s hard to believe what some think is important
As your only bookstore prepares to go dark.
One person in three lives at poverty level,
But some want to go build a snowboarding park.

“Well now if you want to go visit a bookstore
Hop into your car and drive to San Antone.
Your city’s the largest without its own bookstore
How’s that for a record that no one should own?”

And as I stood there on the streets of Laredo,
In front of a store that would sell books no more.
The bookseller came out, his key ring a-jingling
Inserted the keys in and locked the front door.

“I see by your outfit that you are a reader,”
said he, ‘cause my t-shirt said, “I love to read.”
“Good-bye and good luck to you book-packing cowboys,
For you and your ilk my heart truly does bleed.

“Oh beat the drum slowly and buy your books quickly
Wherever you find them, wherever they sell.
Because, my old friend, the whole publishing industry
Is riding upon a big freight train to hëll.”

And so did depart the book store in Laredo
I feel so frustrated, I feel so vexed.
And as for the rest of you: patronize bookstores
Because if you don’t, then your town may be next.

44 comments on ““The Books of Laredo””

  1. Is there a comic book store in Laredo? Could provide a unique opportunity for one if it’s there, reminding people that some reading matter can be found. If not, tell Buddy Saunders to get moving.
    I live in Clinton, Iowa which got a book store back in town recently when a midwest chain, Book World, opened. They seem to go into towns too small to have a B&D or Borders. I give them some of my business but I have been spoiled by the internet.

  2. I usually buy comic-books at the comic-book store, but I do occasionally buy them at the regular bookstore. As for normal books, I usually get them from the library, or from flea markets and stuff. Brand new books are so expensive. (I do by them occasionally.) I do go to the bookstore a lot, but mostly I just read stuff without buying anything. It’s always crowded there, though, so I don’t think they’re doing too bad at the moment.

    Is somebody really planning to build a snowboard park in Laredo? How is that even possible?

    1. “I do go to the bookstore a lot, but mostly I just read stuff without buying anything. It’s always crowded there, though, so I don’t think they’re doing too bad at the moment.”

      Yeah, sure, it’s always crowded with other people doing the same thing you’re doing. Having owned an independent bookstore for 26 years (sold it in 2005, when we could no longer pay the bills), I can attest to many, many wonderful patrons who were very loyal and steady customers. Then there were the readers, the hangers-on, the deadbeats, who filled up the aisles and often made it hard for the real customers to get to the merchandise. So thanks for making the store look crowded with “customers”.

      1. A store full of browsing customers? So many they fill the aisles? Sounds like a world of opportunity to me.
        .
        Perhaps if you saw them more as potential customers and less as “unreal” nuisances you’d still be in business.

  3. Brilliant lyrics. I always liked that song.

    I live in a county with no bookstore and am surrounded by other counties without bookstores. The nearest one is an hour away in another state. Thus, of necessity, I hunt for reading material on the Amazon. I can’t help but think, though, there would be enough good publicity to come out of keeping the Laredo store open that it would be worthwhile. The store is making money, after all. Must a new corporate vision take precedence over common sense? (Rhetorical question.)

  4. One of the true things I learned in high school is that when there’s an advance in technology, something is always lost as well. Sites like Amazon.com and Borders.com and BarnesandNoble.com are absolutely wonderful at finding plenty of stuff, sometimes at great discounts, but they also really hurt the “brick and mortar” stores. It’s easy to say people just don’t read anymore (and texting seems like a technology designed for those with A.D.D.), but I work at a major retail store and there are several books that are selling very well indeed this season.

    The question is what, if anything, will Laredo to rectify this?

  5. Considering there are more Spanish language newspapers than English, one wonders if the B. Dalton’s would have stayed open if it had a larger Spanish language section.

    That said, there seems to be a Spanish Language bookstore still in operation, at least one Christian bookstore, and a Barnes & Noble still on the Texas A&M campus.

    1. “That said, there seems to be a Spanish Language bookstore still in operation, at least one Christian bookstore, and a Barnes & Noble still on the Texas A&M campus.”
      .
      Apparently also a comic book store “Legacy Comics.” And though it may pain me to say it as a bookstore-loving bibliophile, there seem to still be Walmart, Costco, and Target locations in Laredo, and those venues are increasingly significant sellers of books nowadays. (Obviously, not to the depth you’d see with traditional booksellers, but they’re not nothing either.)
      .
      A Wall Street Journal article about the bookstore closing cites a Barnes & Noble executive as saying that he believe Laredo could support one of their large-format superstores (as opposed to their B. Dalton mall locations, which they are phasing out which seems to have precipitated the announced closing of the Laredo store) and has a site in mind, though he doesn’t know when or it the location will come available. Take that for the grain of salt it may be worth.

  6. Peter, was it easier or harder to do this parody of the song than it was 20 years ago when you did “The Streets, Where Did They Go?,” inspired by the scene in the New Universe title “Justice.”

    1. I still quote lines from that parody from time to time. “You surely do dress in a purplish manner/You certainly dress in a purplish hue/It’s funny, I thought only Robert Bruce Banner/Would ever wear quite as much purple as you.”

  7. There’s a positive aspect to this story, in that the void left by B. Dalton’s can be filled by anyone willing and able to step up and go into business. A locally-owned bookstore picking up where a corporate chain left off is a step in the *right* direction.

    1. Yeah, it would be great to see a locally-owned store pick up the slack. I’m as guilty as the next person when it comes to using Amazon, etc. but I always love wandering the aisles in a local joint.

      On the other hand, it’s Texas, so how many readers can there be? 🙂

  8. My father lives in Laredo, where he teaches at a local high school. You should HEAR his rants about the illiteracy rates in the city. It’s pathetic. He very accurately refers to it as Satan’s Armpit.

    I’ve visited him there before. I can vouch for the city’s lack of interest in reading. It’s only comic shop died a lonely death several years ago (I actively sought it out during my last visit. They were pretty cool). Seeing their book store go, too? Not surprised in the least.

    1. The stats I quote in the song are from the article about the store closing. Nearly half the people really are illiterate, and one third are living below the poverty level. Shouldn’t be that surprising that the bookstore closed.
      .
      You’ll be happy to know, though, that a quick google search indicates that there are at least seven stores there where you can buy guns. So at least everyone’s priorities are in order.
      .
      PAD

      1. I once told my father that his experiences as a teacher down there would make for an amazing book.

        He’s dealt with a student wearing a deactivated grenade, kids setting off the fire extinguisher in his classroom, kids stealing his computer, kids walking out regularly, cheating… Not to mention parents that take no responsibility and/or blame the school for their kids’ delinquency.

        Ironically, now, if he DID write the book, he’d have no place in the town to go an do a signing. Funny.

      2. Here in Albany Oregon, we also just lost our last bookstore, a Waldenbooks. We’re admittedly smaller than Laredo with an estimated population just shy of fifty thousand. However, there are four places I can think of off the top of my had where I can buy guns. Does this mean our priorities are screwed? Are we a town of illiterates? In my opinion, no.

        The college town next to us, Corvallis, has a Borders which is much more pleasant to visit and has a wider selection. Furthermore, Amazon carries an even larger selection of titles.

        Guns, however, cannot be purchased solely through the internet as it is illegal to transport them across state lines to anyone who doesn’t have a FFL. In short, you no longer need a brick and mortar store to buy books. You need one to legally buy guns.

      3. Malcolm has a really interesting point. I suspect that I read a good bit more than most people, but I doubt a tenth of the books I’ve bought in the last few years have been from a brick-and-mortar bookstore. Admittedly I live in a town without any particularly good book stores, and I’m sure those proportions would shift significantly were there a good B&N nearby, but the absence of a good bookstore doesn’t seem to have had much of an effect on my reading habits. It’s not just the online selection; it’s cheaper, and often much cheaper, to buy from Amazon, or, for that matter, from WalMart.
        .
        That being said, it’s still pretty sad that a city of 233,000 can’t support ONE bookstore.

      4. Does this mean our priorities are screwed? Are we a town of illiterates? In my opinion, no.
        .
        Just so we’re clear: I wasn’t insinuating that a town with no book stores is a town of illiterates. Laredo’s illiteracy rate is reported in the news article.
        .
        PAD

  9. I spent a summer in Larado when I was in college back in the 80’s. (Long story). I remember there was a Circle K store that sold both alchol (hard alchol, not just beer and wine coolers) and guns and ammo. To be fair the guns were behind the counter. Since in NJ 7-11 stores (the Circle K equalient) rarly if ever sold even even beer and I had never seen a place that sold guns in my life this was somewhat of a culture shock. I do rememeber the book store in the mall, (which I assume was the same one that’s now closing) and comics shop which someone has mentioned closed a few years ago.

    1. For me, the culture shock came from going to their grocery store and seeing PIG HEADS in the frozen meat section.

      (shudder)

      It STILL gives me nightmares.

  10. I avoid Amazon like the plague and this is one of the reasons why. Give me a brick and mortar shop over the Internet equivalent any day. Unfortunately, more and more people don’t see that, so look for larger towns to follow Laredo’s sad example. Heck, when I was in Washington DC a few years back, I visited three malls, two of which had no bookstores (lots of high fashion places, though) and the third which did, but that one was in the process of closing up, too. Feh.

  11. Peter-
    Hi, Tom Lyle of ROBIN and SPIDER-MAN fame here.

    For the last few years I’ve been teaching Sequential Art and storytelling to college kids for SCAD in Savannah. SCAD is a university with campuses in Savannah, Atlanta, Hong Kong and Lacoste (France). It is a very large and influential school with a total student body approaching either 9 or 10 thousand students. (I lost track … sorry.)

    I’m trying to reach you in order to discuss the possibility of you appearing at the first edition of SCAD-Con. This is a media convention (comics, film, animation, video games and more) that will become a full-fledged entity of force by 2012, but for 2010 it will be more of a symposium with some comic creators and film creators and producers in attendance. We are hoping that you would consider attending as a guest for the 2010 edition. The con in April – the 8th thru 10th of 2010.

    I would love to give you more information and discuss this with you. I can be reached at the email address attached to the submission or you can just call my office at 912-525-4851 – or my cell at 012-704-7542.

    I look forward to hearing from you.

    Thanks and Merry Christmas.

    Tom

    1. I’ve already got a commitment for that weekend, Tom, plus I make it a policy never to do debut conventions anyway; I’ve been victimized by too many first-time mistakes, so now I always wait until the organizers have a con or two under their belt. But I’m flattered you thought of me and hope you’ll keep me in mind for the future.
      .
      PAD

  12. Yes, but… is mine old partner Sammy still in that big Fountainbleau in the sky?

      1. Thank you, Mr. David! You’ve validated my existence for the week!

        And right now, I’ll bet New York IS so cold that a person could die!

        x<]:o){
        The Bad Clown…

    2. So many songs for which I wouldn’t know the tune if not for Mr Sherman.
      .
      “In Sherwood Forest there dwelt a knight, who was know… ”
      .
      Ah, good times.

  13. Here in Brockton Ma we have the same problem.We have a Daltons at our local mall and it too will be closing at the end of the year. It is our only ‘bookstore”,and while we do have a great libary what with budget cuts who knows what will happen to it. so come the first of the year the only bookstore in the city will be New England Comics.

  14. The Borders at Marley Station Mall is closing toward the end of January, which will leave Glen Burnie (not incorporated, but with a population over 100,000) without a general-interest bookstore. My mother was in there recently and commented on that, and they told her the problem was that the mall wanted a five-year commitment–and Borders wasn’t sure the mall would be around in five years, or something to that effect.
    Three or so years ago, we had two Waldenbooks (one of which became the Dead-Borders-Walking) at opposite ends of town, and in the late ’90s we had a B Dalton as well. After January 2010, we’ll have two small comic shops and a small, cluttered used-book store. The nearest general-interest bookstores will be the Barnes & Noble at the inner harbor in Baltimore and the Books-A-Million at Arundel Mills.

  15. Pingback: Snapshots 36 « File 770

  17. No comic book store in my town, but there is one in the next town over (about a 15 minute drive/bus ride). I don’t think the man who owns it will quit until he croaks, he seems like the type who will hold onto it even if it’s making negative dollars.

    I buy some books online (especially if I can’t find them at either of my local bookstores), but for the most part I tend to be a browser. One of the stores in town has an awesome sale books section, all the books at half the price, you can find some neat stuff in there that I never would have encountered otherwise.

  18. Keep ’em stupid and ignorant, Texas. Better that way so as to keep them following along like mindless cattle.
    .
    Texas leads or is near the lead in illiteracy and number of people without insurance.

      1. Miami at #1 is no surprise. Florida has a huge population of folk who are unable to read English, though they are able to read their native languages just fine. Was that taken into account I wonder?

        Watch for this number to dive as the new generation of immigrants is educated in U.S Schools and better acclimates to our society.

      2. How awesome is it that a list proclaiming itself the “Illiterate Digest” actually has a misspelling in its mission statement?

      3. I happen to live in Miami, on a stretch that had five bookstores (Two B & N, one Borders, one Waldenbooks, one Used) when I moved in, 2002.

        Of those five, three have closed in the subsequent years: the Borders, one B & N, the Waldenbooks. Our local B & N is still holding on, but while the cafe is always packed — it being one of the best places to hang out in the area — I don’t see a hëll of a lot of book browsing going on there. (Some. But it’s not the major activity.) I have encountered teens hanging out with other teens there, vocally going on about how much they, duh, hate books.

        It’s not quite as bad as all that in this area, though, since three Borders and one Barnes and Noble are available just off that stretch; and if I drive up toward Fort Lauderdale, and beyond, places within an hour of me, there are plenty of other options. (I do think there’s only one small Borders Express in the Keys, though.) And, as I’ve pointed out, the Target and the BJs and the Wal-Mart all carry the Bestsellers, if you want one of those.

        Hialeah, a subcommunity of Miami, has been described as the most illiterate city in the United States.

  19. I live in a small town/city – population somewhere around 25,000 (ooh…with higher than the state average property and violent crimes – lucky us) with one ‘real’ bookstore – a small Books-A-Million offshoot in our dying mall that I hit once a week at least. Buy stuff maybe half the time.
    .
    Plus we’ve got a place for used books now set up in the front part of the pet store (they call the book section “Dog Eared Books”). There’s also a large discount store with a book section that can occasionally yield some treasures (a vast amount of Hard Case Crime paperbacks for $2 a pop most recently) and of course, Kmart and Wal-Mart but Wal-Mart’s recent remodeling has reduced their already sad selection to little more than the Twilight series.
    .
    I used to be big on Amazon, especially right after I moved here and no longer had easy access to Tower Books and various Waldenbooks and B.Dalton locations. But Amazon has increasingly been annoying me, most recently with their seeming refusal to list all the authors who contribute to anthology books, so I just let the bookstore folks order whatever I need that they don’t get in stock otherwise. Unfortunately with my taste in books it’s not too uncommon for me to come up with something that they can’t get.

  21. There’s a few good reasons why I go to actual bookstores rather getting my books on-line. I don’t wanna pay shipping. When I buy something that ISN’T really expensive hard to find video software, I want it in my hand or at least in the bag. I’m guilty of thumbing through several books at the bookstores, but only to find out if they are the ones that come home with me. Even if they have excerpts, Amazon and the like don’t give the feel of buying a book. If someone talks about the ease of finding older stuff, hardcover editions, what have you, I point out the number of older hardcovers I’ve gotten from Waldens, Borders, and a few private bookshops. Still looking for the next in the Ethel the Aardvark series, though….

  22. This piece was linked by Adam-Troy Castro on Facebook. A well written testament to a future I would rather not contemplate.

  23. I read your rhyme and found it depressing. It is sad to know Laredo has lost its only bookstore. Journalists will do everything to get a story, even if it means degrading someone, degrading a community. Laredo is considered illiterate based on the Census 2000. That survey was done ten years ago. I know you don’t care for this city. I know. I was just browsing the Internet, looking for Laredo bookstores and saw your blog. I love Laredo, and since you mentioned them I thought I should at least read one of your works.

    1. Saying that I don’t care for Laredo is rather strong; I’ve never actually been there. Believe me, there are cities in this country that I don’t especially care for. But they’re cities that I’ve actually spent time in (and simply wish afterward that I hadn’t.) With the poem, I think you’ll see the frustration expressed is far more global than just lashing out solely at Laredo itself.
      .
      PAD

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