We decided to conduct a highly unscientific comparison of each store's busiest locations, Barnes & Noble's at Webster Place and the Borders on Michigan, to uncover the ways these motherships call their people home.

Atmosphere
You feel compelled to whisper in Barnes & Noble, lest you disturb the serious-faced browsers. Children instinctively behave here. During peak hours, the store manages to hum at a low frequency, which is entirely conducive to long-term browsing. The store's green carpet and dark wood shelves recall the austere surroundings of a library or reading salon, a welcome setting for those anxious to escape their own thoughts and plunge into the musings of others.

Borders is a hive of high-energy activity, where people reaching for the same title discuss its author, openly flirt with other book lovers or enjoy a cup of coffee while flipping through glossy magazines. Borders—with its candy-colored walls, paging system constantly urging employees to the registers and booksellers dressed like comfortable, bespectacled hobos—is chaotic and disorienting in all the best possible ways, like a crowded coffee house that happens to sell books. Avid readers are notorious for thriving in seclusion, and Borders reminds us that readers can also be wonderfully social creatures.

Selection
Both locations boast excellent selections in most categories, including new fiction, periodicals and new paperbacks. The new paperback fiction tables at B&N appear to rotate their selections with new titles faster than Borders', though Borders' table appears slightly larger and offers what looks to be a larger number of titles. Nevertheless, because Borders' showcases new hardcover selections near the Michigan Avenue, entrance, browsers are constantly jarred by the sound of the security system going off and the steady flow of people outside.

To its credit, Borders' has a curiously large selection of remainder titles, as well as a healthy, well-organized science-fiction/fantasy section. The store also has space directly above its wall shelves where overstock can be clearly viewed.

Barnes & Nobles' boasts an impressive selection of remainders as well, but some of them are displayed on a table in the store's entry vestibule, which gives them a discarded, cheap feeling. Look for a thoughtful display of staff recommendations near the new title shelves that reflect the booksellers' honest opinions, and not just what is crowding the overstock shelves.

Services
The big-name authors seem to gravitate more to the Borders location, perhaps because of its prominent, tourist-friendly locale. Writers like Roger Ebert, Studs Terkel, Terry Pratchett, David Sedaris and Nick Hornby have appeared this year or are scheduled to. Borders also hosts a variety of non-literary guests, like the cast of "RENT!", and the Cowboy Junkies.

As for book discussion groups, the store hosts several monthly groups with a focus on African-American, gay and spiritual writing, as well as a children's story hour.

The B&N at Webster Place may not always attract the literary glitterati, but they make up for that with their impressive book club offerings. There is the Mother & Daughter group, for girls 11-14 and their moms; The Next Chapter group, for expectant mothers; a Teen Classics group (ages 12-16); a Women's Web group (books about the Internet and business); a science fiction group; a group for boys (ages 8-12); and a group for singles.

Customer Service
Shopping at Borders demands a certain degree of patience. During peak hours, the lines at the register can snake towards the far back wall, and staff at the information desks are forced to field a variety of time-consuming questions. That said, patience is a virtue every customer should possess, as the clerks are not there to service you alone. If you are patient, when it is your turn, the cashiers will compliment you on a particularly wise selection. They say thank-you. The information desk staff is perfectly competent, and generally, quite knowledgeable. They do not sigh with frustration if you can't find the religion section—they walk you to it.

The staff at Barnes & Noble is polite and amiable in a reserved, college-professor kind of way. The booksellers are confident, experienced, top-notch employees, who don't look like they spend their spare time in a band. They, in fact, look like readers who spend every free moment taking advantage of the store's in-house discount. And at Barnes & Noble, I actually have been asked if I needed help on the sales floor.

After a cursory look at both stores, I realize that, together, they remind me of two elderly aunts who sometimes irritate you, sometimes surprise you, usually comfort you and always have a good story to tell. It would be impossible to choose a favorite, so we won't. It's enough to know that the aunties serve you well, and will continue to, each in their own unique, lovable manner.

Also by Tony Peregrin

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(2001-03-29)

LAVENDER HAZE
Do the growing number of novels displayed under the lavender-tinged banner of "gay fiction" have what it takes to inspire that pang of emotional identification for a heterosexual readership? Or do most heterosexual readers pass by bookstore shelves marked "gay literature," with bags over their heads to avoid being compromised by a genre that many consider to be too sexual or controversial?
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GREAT SEXPECTATIONS
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(2001-02-15)

COLD COMFORT
The Blues and the Pinks cast snide, sidelong glances at me, one of the few yellow cardholders who dared to be punctual. None of the yellow-bellies make it into the studio. We stand there looking like dateless adolescents at a high school dance, until the audience coordinator offers to let us view the taping through a monitor.
(2001-01-18)

BROTHER'S KEEPER
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GOLDEN NUGGET
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BLOODLETTING
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GAY CHICAGO
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MANIFEST "DENSITY"
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TRUTH ACHE
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