… or at least it does in uber-hip New York, where the magazine that bears the city’s name reports on a new batch of shops for hardcore bookgeeks in the Big Apple [via MetaFilter]:
Contributing to the resurgence is the local-is-better ethos, which has bled over from the culinary and fashion worlds, causing readers to crave a more human-scale shopping experience. And the specter of a world without indie bookshops has inspired a new, perhaps quixotic generation of entrepreneurs to jump in. The new booksellers bring a modern approach to the business: In place of the dusty riots of yore are more curated, well-lit shops that emphasize personal service and community—book clubs, readings, charity projects, and even the occasional lit-geek basketball league.
I’ve always been a dusty riot kinda guy myself (yeah, I know, surprising much?, but hey, whatever works – if people are selling books (and making a living selling books) in brick’n’mortar non-chain outlets, I don’t care how they’re doing it.
What about you lot – what’s the state of the indie bookstore in your town or city?
of course there can be bookstores in new york, with a superdense population and a culture of conspicuous consumption. they also have ballet and opera here.
don’t go extrapolating these trends.
And, here in Portland, we gave the greatest of them all, Powell’s
Pittsburgh’s indies are doing well. see: “The Second Wave of Pittsburgh Bookstores”
in Pop City Magazine, August 4, 2010: