Bummed

moblues · Sep 10, 2006

Okay. I'm bummed. Big time. My city of Naperville's (IL) long-standing (maybe thirty-forty years--I was too stunned to ask) new and used bookstore is going completely online. They close their brick and mortar facade in November. At least they aren't going out of business. The name of the business is BookZeller.

Going to BookZeller was the nightcap of our Friday or Saturday evening excursions. Okay, I'm old.

The location was perfect. If you didn't know it was there, you could walk right by it and never notice. (Think Bell, Book and Candle with Kim Novak & Jimmy Stewart.) It has/had a lower-level basement location. Just walk down three steps and you could smell the musty treasures secreted within the surprisingly large hidden warren below.

Last night I bought Caleb Carr's The Angel of Darkness in perfect condition--hardcover, no less. How much did it cost, you ask? (okay maybe you didn't) $1.00. ONE DOLLAR!

I think I'm going to go curl up and hide in the corner for a while.

Mike

alleycat · Sep 10, 2006

Find out if you local library has sidewalk sales (mine does).

One of my favorite New Yorker covers of all time is of an old-fashioned bookstore, back before bookstores were as serile as hospitals.

emeraldcite · Sep 10, 2006

Find out if you local library has sidewalk sales (mine does).

Indeed. I picked up a first edition of Faulkner's Light in August (without the dust cover) for fifty cents.

Although I feel for you and your loss. I love that musty smell of books and I would miss a local store; however, all we really have around here are mega-chains.

alleycat · Sep 10, 2006

If you get desperate, come to Nashville. We still have a few old bookstores (such as this one: (http://www.abebooks.com/home/ELDERSBOOKSTORE/ ) and a super-large locally owned bookstore.

moblues · Sep 10, 2006

Hi alleycat. It's not so much the loss of great bargains on used books that bothers me. It's the end of an era. I knew it was coming; we all did. But to see it happen to such a charming, kitschy little place where artists and students hung out together hurts. Color me yesterday and missing it as it happens before my eyes.

Mike

alleycat · Sep 10, 2006

Hopefully, you still have a local coffee shop that isn't a Starbucks.

Aubrey · Sep 10, 2006

moblues, that sounds a lot like a bookstore I went to on vacation. It was tucked away in the side of this brick building and down a set of outside stairs. It actually looked like a store you'd find in Paris (from pics I've seen of Paris streets).

It just kills me when cozy little stores go out of buisness. There's something so special and personal about them that can't be duplicated by mega-stores. Sadly, even though my town is pretty big, the only small book stores we have are one or two used ones and one gay specialty one. Even the Christian ones are all big chain stores. *le sigh*

I'm happy wherever books are and I've adapted, but a little part of me mourns for the small stores.

moblues · Sep 10, 2006

Thanks emeraldcite. It's just going to take a while to set in, I guess. My wife hates reading (she does it for a living as an attorney) and she was just as upset as I was with this news. She buys at least three books everytime we go (I should say went--sigh) there, just to let each of them collect dust on her bookshelf.

Mike

Saundra Julian · Sep 10, 2006

Mike,
We just moved to Oswego about a year ago so I haven't had a chance to explore all the great old shops in Naperville...sorry I missed that one.

moblues · Sep 10, 2006

Hi Aubrey. You're right. These places are cozy. They make you feel like you're sitting in front of a fireplace during a brazen winter night's chill with a comforter that your grandmother lovingly made for you.

Ah, Paris ...

Mike

c2ckim · Sep 10, 2006

That truely is a bummer. If I had to get lost in any kind of store imaginable I'd pick a book store.

moblues · Sep 10, 2006

Hi Sandra. Even though BookZeller was supposed to stay open until November, the sales clerk last night said that they were closing October 8th. You still have time to visit. Plus we have great restaurants.

Mike

Serena Casey · Sep 10, 2006

I feel your pain. There are no book stores at all within 50 miles of here.

Lilybiz · Sep 10, 2006

Moblues, I feel your pain. I love the musty, smelly, treasure of a great used book store.

The only thing we can do to keep the old, independent and used book stores open is to shop in them, and that means not shopping in the chain stores. Trouble is, the chain stores often have better prices because they get volume discounts.

Which come out of the writer's pocket...

Which is why writers can't afford to pay full price.

Oh dear dog (whose blog have I been reading?), what a vicious circle.

moblues · Sep 10, 2006

c2ckim, Serena Casey, and aertep: Great posts.

You know, just like the recording industry allowed the audio casette to overtake the LP in that medium, and the DVD overtook VHS, progress (is it really? whimper) is inevitable.

At least creativity can't be taken from us. Yet.

Mike

Cassiopeia · Sep 10, 2006

I can sympathize with you on this one. It seems like all the last great place with any sort of real ambiance are fading into the world of chain stores and online sites. Can't help but thinking about "You've Got Mail". Ours is a dying age when it was the thing to do when you had a couple hours at the local bookstore and then slipped off to a quiet place for coffee and biscuits. Living far away from my little home town of Rapid City South Dakota makes me long for simpler times when, People said what they meant and meant what they said. And when it was cool to hang out at the book store

jbal · Sep 10, 2006

This is happening in my business as well (music equipment), the small locals getting swallowed by mega chains. It sucks, but it's happening all over.
We're an indie that's still hanging on though.

DamaNegra · Sep 10, 2006

Yeah y'all keep on making fun of us who have to purchase hardcover books at $300 pesos, $200 if we're lucky. Paperbacks start at $80 pesos.

moblues · Sep 10, 2006

Casi--my wife loves South Dakota. We stayed in Rapid City last year.

jbal--I've been a musician for (OMG) 29 years. Hang on for as long as you can.

DamaNegra--I didn't, nor would I ever, make fun of anyone in any circumstance on this board. Period. That would be hurtful and cheap.

Mike

Carrie in PA · Sep 10, 2006

That stinks about the bookstore. My closest bookstore is 45 miles away and it's one of the chain stores.

My library blows chunks, too.

I hope you can find another great spot!

moblues · Sep 10, 2006

Thanks Carrie. I'm already scheming. This is never, ever, a good thing. I'm already calculating rental costs (steep) vs. sales returns (spare). I can see why they made this decision. I'm still thinking ...

Mike

Cassiopeia · Sep 10, 2006

moblues said:
Casi--my wife loves South Dakota. We stayed in Radid City last year.

jbal--I've been a musician for (OMG) 29 years. Hang on for as long as you can.

DamaNegra--I didn't, nor would I ever, make fun of anyone in any circumstance on this board. Period. That would be hurtful and cheap.

Mike

I am in Utah now but I do get to missing South Dakota. I would have said I miss home but Utah is now my home and I love my rockies. Yet living in the big city isn't the same. And somehow...barnes and noble or borders just doesn't have the same ambiance.

moblues · Sep 10, 2006

Casiopeia said:
Yet living in the big city isn't the same. And somehow...barnes and noble or borders just doesn't have the same ambiance.

This is what is breaking my heart. I lived in Chicago for 39 years--downtown almost ten. It's the charm of this tiny little bookstore that we loved. We've only lived here in Naperville for five years. The population is a little over 130,000.

It's almost like the loss of innocence.

Mike

Cassiopeia · Sep 10, 2006

moblues said:
This is what is breaking my heart. I lived in Chicago for 39 years--downtown almost ten. It's the charm of this tiny little bookstore that we loved. We've only lived here in Naperville for five years. The population is a little over 130,000.

It's almost like the loss of innocence.

Mike

It isn't almost like the loss of innocence, it IS the loss of innocence. And it is permeating just about every aspect of our lives. I am taking a class at the community college...one of five that studies film genres and all that. We have been watching black and white films to start and let me tell you, it makes me homesick for my grandpa and grandma as this was their era. With it came the beauty of their personalities and the essence of their lifestyle.

Every decade that passes takes with it the older values and ways. Simpler times deminish in favour of expedience and thrill. We just watched, "It Happened One Night" and I swear I fell in love with Clark Gable.

*sigh* what will we do?

Lilybiz · Sep 10, 2006

I think it's the lament of every generation.

Bummed

moblues

alleycat

Still around

emeraldcite

Art is Resistance

alleycat

Still around

moblues

alleycat

Still around

Aubrey

moblues

Saundra Julian

A work in progress

moblues

c2ckim

moblues

Serena Casey

User Titles Rock

Lilybiz

glad to be here

moblues

Cassiopeia

Otherwise Occupied

jbal

DamaNegra

Mexican on the loose!

moblues

Carrie in PA

Write All The Words!

moblues

Cassiopeia

Otherwise Occupied

moblues

Cassiopeia

Otherwise Occupied

Lilybiz

glad to be here