These days, not a week goes by without a local independent bookstore, sometimes a fixture of 30 or more years, the work of a lifetime, closing its doors. The tip of the iceberg:
Avenue Victor Hugo (Boston), WordsWorth (Cambridge), Midnight Special (Santa Monica), Sibanye (Baltimore), Red & Black Books (Seattle), Booked Up (Archer City TX--Larry McMurtry's store), Ruminator Books (St. Paul),Thackeray's (Toledo), My Sisters Words (Syracuse), Printer's Ink (Blacksburg VA), Northern Lights (St. Johnsbury VT),Salmagundi Books (Cold Springs NY), Boadecia's Books (Kensington CA), Book Mark (Eugene OR), Million Story Book Company (Fort Wayne IN) Eeyore's Books (NYC), Oscar Wilde Bookshop (NYC), Blackbird Books (Nashua NH) and many, many, many more.
This week brings news of at least four more closings:
Branch's of Chapel Hill NC article
Bound To Be Read (Albuquerque NM and Minneapolis MN) article
and Altamont Books of Livermore CA article
Much has been written on the subject of the loss of local independent bookstores, but it's time to remind those of us who love books , and hopefully that's all of us LISNews readers, that they will soon be gone if we don't patronize them .
For those of you who want a little background on the history of the loss of the indies, here's an article (not recent, but still current) by Pat Holt, former book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle that sums up how we've come to this sorry state. Pat also writes a wonderful online column, here with news of the book business.
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