There is almost nothing I love more than a bookstore.
And this spring, defying all logic and a recession and the tireless dismissal of digital age warriors – New York City is having a bookstore resurgence – nay renaissance, and anyone who has seen the line to pay at The Strand wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.
Let’s go back a few years.
In the 2000’s there were way too many bookstores in New York City. Borders and Barnes and Noble were chasing each other around Manhattan like Chase Bank and Duane Reade. Remember that huge Borders at the entrance to Mad Square Garden? And the one inside the Deutche Bank complex at Columbus Circle? It seemed like there was a bookstore every ten blocks or so, no matter where you were standing. I could go down a list in my head of former B&N and Borders locations in Manhattan… Third Avenue across from the lipstick building, 57th and Lex in that building where the water fountain is…The Strand annex near the Seaport…
But that all slowly ended, first with the closing of all the Borders and the slow retreat of the Barnes and Nobles.
But Demand has again made her voice heard and Supply is rising to the challenge.
One of the closures that hit me the hardest was the Barnes and Noble on 86th and Lex. That block had a movie theatre, that bookstore and a Shake Shack, and when my son was little, that stretch of 86th was all we needed to pass an afternoon. Now, since COVID, even the movie theatre is gone but… rejoice! They are opening a Barnes and Noble on Third and 87th across from the Whole Food! This spring!
This isn’t just great news for people who live there and want to get their browse on, it is a sign of hope for America, or at least, New York. People do in fact read!
There are more independent book shops in Brooklyn popping up than one can fit in an article but Alex Brooks of Troubled Sleep in Park Slope put it best, “I think the written word is a deep human thing that has persisted through human history for a long time, and I think the written word will always be a part of human history.”
Check out Burnt Books and Hey Kids! Comics in Greenpoint and Dear Friend in Bed-Stuy.
We all know the mighty Strand and Books are Magic at Smith Street in Brooklyn and McNally Jackson in Brooklyn and Soho, but did you know they are going high rent? In Rock Center! McNally Jackson has opened 7000 square feet of books, right alongside FAO Schwartz and the Rockettes.
This makes me feel deeply vindicated.
Part of the human condition is that we crave story. In more forms than we even recognize; film, TV, comics, video games, overheard gossip… Then what happens? Tell me what happens… no don’t tell me…
Writer Brian McDonald tell us: “Stories are the collective wisdom of everyone who has ever lived… and all of humanity is allowed access.”
(I’m looking at you book banners!) New York might be the most literate and literary city in America and this spring it seems everywhere I turn I hear about a new bookstore – many of them incorporating a bar and coffee shop into their retail experience taking a page from the B&N model of, “hang out all you want, one day you will buy something.”
Yes, we all have varying degrees of ADD by the time we can walk thanks to technology, but I hope you feel inspired to seek out a little wisdom, a great story and support part of the culture of being human and throw a little money around at your local bookstore this spring.
