“The Orchid Thief” author and U-M grad Susan Orlean links Borders’ hard times to browsing

A week after the filing, the Borders bankruptcy is now just big old news. But in her thoughtful perspective on the retailer’s demise, Orlean says that book behemoths and indie shops now find their futures intertwined. And as for peeking and putting back? Uh-uh-uh!Excerpt:I feel somewhat responsible for the Borders Books bankruptcy…I spent many afternoons in the store, surrounded by books I’d hauled down from the shelves, reading and whiling away the day. I bought a few of the books, but not many. If you plotted the dollars I spent at the cash register against the time I spent reading books there for free, Borders probably made less than a penny an hour off of me. I was living proof of a doomed business model.Find the full story here.