[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDOUcvb2hWs[/youtube] Sylvia Beach, the founder of the seminal Shakespeare & Company Bookshop in Paris and the matriarch of the literary bookshop, was interviewed in the 1950's about the shop and her relationship with James Joyce and publishing 'Ulysses' and her friendship with Ernest Hemingway. Beautiful stuff.
The BookBar is open
Look what just opened in Denver. It's the BookBar! Owner Nicole Sullivan "dreamt of a gathering space for those who love reading and she wanted to create an atmosphere where they would feel at home." The books are new and the food is hors d'oeuvres and desserts. The place is kid friendly and the ingredients are sourced locally. Menu close-up of book counter BookBar website It's a Bar, It's a Bookstore: BookBar Opened - Eater Denver Previously on Book Patrol: A Book Wall in a Food Place
Which Way Is Up? Trying to Make Sense of the Current State of the Bookshop
If you are an independent bookseller and your door is still open you are to be commended. The systematic onslaught against independent businesses that is a byproduct of our current economic policy and technological advances has been steady and ruthless for the last decade. Luckily the bookstore is faring better than the independent (or the patronizing tag the mom & pop) hardware or drug store. I don't have the numbers but I would bet the % of these that have gone out of business in the last 10 years is far greater than the % of bookstores that have closed...