Who needs a bookstore?

great idea..don't forget the fantasy sci-fi section, please


Is there a difference between a literary bookstore and a plain old bookstore?.. :? literary sounds highbrow[b]

Subject: Myrtle Avenue Heartache

I live around Myrtle and I have been waiting for a bookstore to open around here. I was excited to hear about Brownstone Books, but that's just too far from my house to be one of my regular haunts. Wouldn't the Pratt/Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy North community provide enough support for a bookstore? Can you even find reading materials on Myrtle (besides the Pratt Bookstore's textbooks)?

Regardless of your future bookstore's location, I wish you the best of luck.

Soda in Prospect Heights on Vanderbilt is not closed as far as I know.

Anyway, I think a good place to open a bookstore with decent rents would be on Fulton Street in Clinton Hill. The stretch from Vanderbilt through to Classon is ripe for more development. There is a lovely wine store (Olivino), a few restaurants and cafes such as Kush, Brown Betty (really around the corner from Fulton on Grand), the Outpost Cafe, Boca Soul....

The owners of The Outpost Cafe mentioned to me that there was some sort of business incentive (subsidy? not sure) that made opening on Fulton attractive to them.

In any event, I live nearby and would love a good bookstore in that area. You'd get a lot of interest from the neighborhood. People are just dying for more services on that corridor.

Subject: Re: Who needs a bookstore?

booknerdnyc wrote: I'm going to open a literary bookstore in Brooklyn. Somewhere. Someday soon. It's gonna have all the newest and best hand-picked stuff, some kids books, comic books/graphic literature, and if I can I get enough space for a cafe, some great events too. I've been exploring neighborhoods for months, looking for the right combination of cheap rent and educated folks with disposable income to make a place like this work.

So what do you think? Where do you think there's the greatest demand for a great literary bookstore? I posed the question to the Prospect Heights board and got a lot of ideas. But I've been told that Myrtle Ave. is also actively seeking a bookstore. Where do you think a great bookstore/cafe could survive and thrive in Brooklyn?

i wood luv a bocstor in the nehborhode, specally with lots of piktures

I would also love one. It would be amazing. I think many others would love one too.

I agree with aforementioned locations--DeKalb, Fulton or Myrtle.

Keep us posted.

The Book Store that closed on Fulton was pretty much limited to an "African American" book selection, whatever that means. My point is, the selection was limited, plus it was not very nice inside, more like a drug store atmosphere with books. If you did a book store with some sort of cafe type thing, I think it would go over well for all concerned, new and old residents, of Clinton Hill and the Prospect Heights people who use the Fulton C train.

Subject: YES! Books, please!

My particular section of Bed-Stuy might not be ample grounds for a bookstore, but lord knows if there was one close by I'd frequent it. I'm actually right now about to trudge all the way into the city just to buy a book, and I'm fuming. That's an hour and a half roundtrip for one book I need for a show tonight. Ridiculous! People in Brooklyn read! Give us our lit fix, yo. Plus if there were a nice place to sit and hang out I'd definitely do that, too. Not that 5,000 local Crown Fried Chickens don't have a certain atmosphere to them, but still. I suggest Lafayette, because I can, and because it's trafficked, has ample space and is accessible (by me, which is who I'm looking out for here).

More power to you, sir. Follow that dream.

Do any of you remember when there used to be a Barnes & Nobles (or was it Waldenbooks?) in Albee Square Mall? It was a great little oasis for bookworms in the early 80s. Needless to say, they decided they needed the space for another Easy Pickins and Sneaker World and shut it down. And yeah, I'm still bitter, why do you ask?

Subject: How about Williamsburg...or Greenpoint

You should write to this guy people call the LoftNinja....he has warehouse space pretty much all of the time in Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, etc. His site: loftninja.com
hope this helps....he comes highly recommended.

Subject: GREENPOINT!

Greenpoint is still cheap, is COMPLETELY under-served, VERY under-rated, and has people who read. yes, it is still very polish, but not as polish as it once was. a store like this would be a destination, people can take the B61 bus easily to travel from one end of greenpoint to the other.

Subject: Discussion on Brooklyn Record

a bunch of people pointed out over at Brooklyn Record.com that in addition to the dance studio on Fulton at Clinton, the site of former Bodegas is large and already has cafe infrastructure and would be a great site, with foot traffic. Living a few blocks away, I know I would frequent it often!

Opening a literary book store would be a charitable work of philanthropy that would contribute to any community, but it will never be profitable.

I think it could be a fun endeavor for a group of local--not to mention wealthy--retirees to invest in, but it would be a very unwise financial decision for a young entrepreneur.

If anyone is considering doing something along these lines in Fort Greene, please let me know. I've worked in several aspects of publishing and bookselling since I graduated from college.

Young Hovacraft wrote: Opening a literary book store would be a charitable work of philanthropy that would contribute to any community, but it will never be profitable.

i'm sure booknerd has some thoughts on this subject, but while your statement is obviously generally true, there are a couple factors that might shift the equation a little in this case:

1. the mail sucks. i find that getting books from online sources is such a pain in the neck that any modest price difference isn't worth it to me. if i lived in a nice suburb, where my packages could be left on my doorstep, where i had a car to drive to the ups pickup site, and where i had a real post office instead of the adelphi station, i'd be more inclined to buy online. as it is, buying online is a last resort for me. i'd rather pay a few bucks more and actually get the book i want.

2. while there are some chains around, like the b&n in downtown brooklyn, they are, as seems often to be the case with chain stores in new york, the worst instances of those chains i've encountered. while b&n's slimy ways of putting small bookstores out of business are enraging, the real deal breaker here is that they never seem to have the book i want -- and i'm not talking obscure dutch translations of medieval medical texts, here, i'm talking basic, common books of essays and novels. furthermore, when they do seem on the computer to have something, good luck finding it when even their employees rarely seem to have a clue where something might be.

3. travel. since i'm not in a car, location matters a lot to me. right now, bookstores mean an extra train trip. again, i'd totally pay a few bucks to have the mta uninvolved.

i think a bookstore with good organization and great service might be able to hang on here -- especially if you can boost your profits by selling some of those non-book items that the big chains make so much money on. but put it in PROSPECT HEIGHTS, so i can go to it.

Fulton Street in Clinton Hill... between Grand & Classon. There's Outpost, a great coffeehouse. A bookstore would be perfect nearby.