I like my local Borders. When the girl on check-out starts enthusing to you about Neil Gaiman and Elizabeth Bear you know that the store is doing a good job.

Neil, Bear – if either of you know the girl I’m talking about, she deserves a thank you present from me. Email me.

All of which reminds me, Borders has started the 3 for 2 thing over here. I noticed this the day I was in San Jose to see Neil. I had a lot of time to kill between his gig and the evening event with the CVB, and I spent part of it browsing in the Borders around the corner from the Fairmont. They had two good books in the offer, but I couldn’t find a third, so I decided to try my local Borders at the weekend; it is much bigger so I expected a bigger selection. Much to my astonishment, I found that they had an entirely different selection of books on 3 for 2. And not just that they’d sold out of the ones I wanted – they were in stock, but not in the offer. How about that – local stores making a decision about what to put on special. Can you imagine that happening in the UK?