19c1/1239134475-barnesandfuckingnoble1.jpgBarnes and Noble has just launched an ugly, ugly website called Blogging Booksellers. This is clearly supposed to be a way for the company to try to do that local bookseller thing that independent bookstores do, only with a whole lot of corporate control. It's allegedly a way for Barnes and Noble employees to share local book news. Using that hot new viral technique known as "blogging."

Of course, I don't think that B&N knows what a blog is, because these aren't blog posts so much as videos. Also, Seattle's Blogging Bookseller is a woman named Kirsty. Her local book news? You should read Silent in the Grave, by Deanna Raybourn. Raybourn lives in Virginia. But it's local because, um, Kirsty's from here!

And local bookselling is certainly important, isn't it, Barnes & Noble? Of course it is! Never mind the fact that you're responsible for hundreds—maybe thousands—of independent bookstores going out of business in America and around the world. It says right on your website, in faux-handwritten letters:06e6/1239134833-barnesandfuckingnoble2.jpg

Now I have a question: Is this irony or am I just sick to my stomach?