Tea at Trianon: How New York’s Indie Bookstores Survive

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, September 22, 2019

How New York’s Indie Bookstores Survive

From Washington Square News:

Rent hikes continue to threaten small, independent shops like Bookbook, but the city’s bibliophiles won’t give up without a fight. In October 2018, SoHo staple McNally Jackson Books seemed to face an inevitable relocation when the rent on the Prince Street store was bumped up from $350,000 to a staggering $850,000, according to Vulture. Owner Sarah McNally was, however, able to negotiate a mangeable deal with the landlord ($650,000 for now with gradual increases over the next five years), and within weeks was in the process of opening not one but two new locations in Downtown Brooklyn and South Street Seaport.

“McNally said that prospective landlords had approached her — and not the other way around — for both the Seaport and City Point projects,” Vulture reported.

Despite the threat of Amazon and unprecedented rent hikes, indie bookstores continue to crop up in New York City, such as Books Are Magic in Cobble Hill, which opened its doors in May 2017. Owner Emma Straub told “Elle,” “When my husband and I found out that our local bookstore was closing, there were only two clear choices: Open a bookstore, or move.”

In 2015, six-year-old Greenlight Bookstore, located in Fort Greene, opened a second location in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Cafe con Libros opened shop in Crown Heights in January 2018, describing itself as a “feminist community bookstore […] born from and are guided by the lush cannon of Black Feminist thought producers and activists.” The space seeks “to advance and uplift stories of womxn and girls around the globe who are redefining the word feminist and feminism with every day, ordinary culturally informed acts of resistance and love.” The feminist bookstore even prices their books at less than full retail value.

On the Lower East Side, Bluestockings Bookstore, Cafe & Activist Center hosts readings, workshops, performances, discussions and films almost every night. The store is volunteer-powered and collectively-owned.

This past May, Noëlle Santos opened The Lit. Bar in the Bronx in response to a 2014 petition to save a local Barnes and Noble, the last bookstore in the borough.

“This neighborhood is gentrifying, and we’re going to start seeing more and more businesses that look more upscale coming into this neighborhood,” Santos said. “I don’t want anybody from the existing population to walk by this place and question for a second that this place isn’t for us.”

The indie bookstore of 2019 is not just a place to buy books, but a place to find community, have a coffee, do some writing, attend literary events — or even take crochet and knitting classes at the BookMark Shoppe in Bay Ridge.

We’ve all heard that millennials are investing in experiences, not things. The city’s independent bookstores are keenly aware of this, and are staying afloat by doing what Amazon cannot: bring people together, carefully curate their selection and provide an experience beyond the page.

These stores also have a moral conscience that is appealing to New Yorkers. Housing Works Bookstore Cafe and Bar, for example, gives 100% of its profits to their foundation, dedicated to “ending the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness.” (Read more.)