WE MONTEREY Bay-region readers love our bookstores. We have been avid customers of places like Bookshop Santa Cruz, the Capitola Book Café, Thunderbird Books down at the entrance to Carmel Valley and a dozen or more other shops that sell new and/or used literature.

For the most part, we have eschewed the huge chain bookstores that have tried, with varying degrees of success, to grab a piece of the local market. Many of us, for instance, were happy when the Super Crown store on Pacific Avenue shut its doors instead of driving Bookshop Santa Cruz across the street out of business.

Now, many readers in the Santa Cruz area are trying to persuade Capitola City council members to keep another national chain from opening a huge joint that could spell the end not only to the venerable Book Café but to a sweet children's bookshop in the Capitola Village.

Borders, a chain that does indeed have inviting stores that carry a huge selection of books and compact disks, wants to open a shop in the controversial Redtree development on Bay Avenue, in front of the Nob Hill supermarket, the Longs drug store and the county Office of Education. The Capitola Planning Commission has approved the proposal, and the city council might well do the same when it considers the application on Feb. 11.

PERSONALLY, I have nothing against Borders in general -- other than the fact that they tend to open in areas where they drive independent book shops out of business.

I have stopped a few times at Borders in Sand City. It's a big, well-stocked place with helpful clerks and a pleasant atmosphere. I suspect that not all that many readers drive over to Sand City merely to pick up a book. Rather, I suspect they visit because they're already shopping at nearby stores such as Costco, Ross and Target. That makes me wonder whether anyone will actually shop at the Capitola Borders -- until and unless other stores draw customers to the Redtree shopping center.

That particular site is not an easy place to visit. Traffic on Bay Avenue is terrible and can only get worse as more stores open. The adjacent freeway exit and entrance are among the least-convenient in the county, and the traffic signals and stop signs on nearby streets make driving a pain in the neck.

I am certain the bigwigs at Borders believe they can make money at that site, no matter how inconvenient it might be for customers.

WHAT I don't understand is why the Capitola City Council would want to doom a couple of popular local bookstores. Sure, the city would get sales tax revenues from a new Borders, but much of that would be income it already gets from the other two shops.

``I don't believe bigger is better,'' Leslye Lawrence told me the other day at Seeds of Change, the children's bookstore. ``We can order any book anyone wants, and we hand-pick the books we stock. We do this from our hearts. It's not a big money-maker. It's our passion.''

``I love the coziness and comfort,'' chimed in customer Elisa Bridges as she and her 15-month-old son, Nicholas, browsed through kids' volumes that Lawrence has, as she says, hand-picked."

Gwen Marcum, one of the owners of the Capitola Book Café, feels ``the whole character of Capitola is threatened'' by the proposed Borders. ``We feel fortunate,'' she says, ``to be in a community where people are willing to seek out items that they want. They shop at farmers' markets, and they come to book stores that they like instead of places where prices are sometimes a bit lower. They believe that life is more than buying cheap underwear.''

So do I.

That's why I wish Borders would forget Santa Cruz and Capitola. And it's why I wish Borders would think about selling books in cities like Salinas and Watsonville. Those towns really do need bookstores.

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