Borders, Borders Bankruptcy | featured news

In a year when Borders went out of business and Oprah's Book Club disappeared, e-book sales surged and self-published authors got rich selling 99-cent digital books. But it also was a good year for an old print lion —Ernest Hemingway— and books about a famous 20th-century couple, Jack and Jackie. USA TODAY looks back at the rapidly changing world of books in 2011.

The saying goes that when God closes a door, he opens a window. So when the Borders bookstore chain — the nation’s second-largest — finishes closing all of its stores this month, Christian retailers see a window of opportunity in the death of a mega-competitor that once threatened to put them out of business.

Publishers turned aggressive about selling to Kitson, Mr. Ross said, as traditional bookstores switched focus or closed. That "has been good for us," he said. "If there's a good book, we'll go deep into it." And publishers, he said, "realize what a specialty store can do for their business, with the window and the table."