i've read lots of reviews for both and the opinions fluctuate for both. it's been pretty solid one way or the other for me. Borders used to be good but then basically ending up sucking pretty badly. they had this awesome floor dedicated to nothing but music with a huge selection and they took it away and put in a crumby music area full of crap like diddy and britney. service was generally bad, or at least apathetic, and the employees looked like bums or high school students and there was a new employee in there like every week... book selection was good. 'bout it.
aside from the review that says "bookophiles" may prefer borders, every staff member i've talked to at barnes and noble has made excellent recommendations for a variety of subjects, particularly the head of the art department, music department, and the history department. they can be hard to find sometimes but when i do find them they're always helpful at the least and cheerful at best. great atmosphere. more educated staff than borders by far. anyway, borders is gone anyway. but i'd stopped going there awhile ago.
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