Another Independent Bookstore Gone

Coliseum Books, a bookstore that I considered to be an institution in New York City, is closed.  Another independent bookstore that just couldn’t compete with the Borders and Barnes and Noble onslaught is gone.    Coliseum was the first bookstore that I discovered as a browser during my teenage years.  It was located in Columbus Circle back then, which was the entry to the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Before the Disneyfication of Manhattan occurred, the Upper West Side considered itself the literary center of the city, if not the universe, and Coliseum was an anchor.  It wasn’t a particularly comfortable bookstore by today’s standards, but you found a book that was intriguing in just about every aisle on subjects you didn’t even know you were interested in.  But then Donald Trump bought the largest building in the area, did a very gaudy renovation, and it’s been a slow downhill ever since that culminated in the construction of a huge luxury mall with condos on the top.  There went the neighborhood.  Coliseum moved to a smaller location in midtown Manhattan.

I thought Coliseum’s new location could be ideal for a bookstore.  Lots of business and tourist traffic.  It was smaller, but I actually liked the café they added.  It wasn’t the same but at least it was saved and held on for a few years.  Until last week.   I guess the internet is partly to blame too.  You no longer have to go to the independent store to find that obscure book that the chain stores didn’t carry.  You can now order it online for a cheaper price.  But it’s not the same.  Independent bookstores contribute greatly to the character of a neighborhood, or a city as a whole.  I have a hard time considering a neighborhood, well, really a neighborhood, unless there is an independent bookstore in the area.  You need a place to stop and kill large chunks of time on your neighborhood ramble.  Oakland, CA, which gets a bad rap in general, has (had??) some great independent bookstores downtown.  It was a reason to go downtown.  It was in downtown Oakland bookstores where I first learned of antiquarian books and the value of first editions.  Walden Pond books near Lake Merritt is great too.  If you were broke, Walden would buy your old books.  

Los Angeles actually has more neighborhoods than most people give credit or even Angelenos are aware since they don’t walk much.   West of the 405, where Santa Monica Blvd. intersects Sawtelle, there is a strip where there are some wonderful independent movie theaters (also key for any neighborhood), an independent video store (the best one I’ve ever been in), and a great little independent bookstore.  And in the same walking vicinity are independent Japanese video stores where you can rent otherwise impossible to find martial arts flicks.  Maybe a bookstore too...I don’t know because I can’t read Japanese !   Los Feliz and Santa Monica have walkable neighborhood-y strips as well with the requisite indie bookstore and theaters, minus the video stores and Asian flavor.  

I think Coliseum’s fate not only reflects the decline of the independent bookstore, but also the homogenization of New York City as a whole.  But that’s another diary.

•  I've always called them

  Barnes and IGnoble for this very reason.

  Sorry to hear about this!

  They did it to my favorite bookstore in 1994.

  by benthos on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:12:55 PM PDT

•  Go To Book Revue In Huntington

  If you can stand to trek out to LI.

  by NewDirection on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:15:14 PM PDT

•  Well

  DC still has some independent bookstores. I'll be honest, though. I buy most of my books through Amazon.com and B&N mainly because I don't have the time to go to bookstores and look for what I want. It's much easier--and quicker--to go online, pick what I want, and pay for it.

  by jiacinto on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:15:33 PM PDT

  •  I find just about everything with

    ABE, then I go to the stores' websites and order directly. Used to order through ABE, but they did something funky  their interface and it doesn't cooperate with me anymore. Only time I hit a big box is when somebody bestows a gift card on me.

    by nu on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 04:50:56 PM PDT

  •  Do you think Amazon needs your support?

    All you have to do is call your indie bookstroe and ask them to order the book for you.

    by bdbd on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 05:47:51 PM PDT

•  Times change.,

  I've always loved bookstores, especially used bookstores, it's all online now. You can find more online than you could even in Manhattan.

  by irate on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:16:21 PM PDT

  •  There Are Still Intangible Benefits...

    ...when shopping in a store. If you want conversation to go along with your book purchase, the online store won't provide it.  I don't go often, but when I've gone to Revolution Books in New York City, I can't leave without an hour conversation with a member of the staff.  And Revolution is a leftist bookstore, waaaaay to the left of mainstream dKos diaries so the conversation is always thought provoking.   You can also find diamonds in the rough when shopping in a store.  I recently found an autographed, 1st edition of a Walter Mosley book in a secondhand store for under $10.  Wasn't looking for anything special, but I looked up and it was there.

    by Grand Poobah on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:32:00 PM PDT

    •  I understand.

      I've always loved bookstores. I always loved the old style card catalogs libraries used to have too. The Serendipity of Research I always called it. Who knows what will turn up, unexpectantly, thumbing through the cards. Not everybody lives in Manhattan. My choices have exploded with the online venues.

      by irate on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:39:21 PM PDT

•  As much as I loved Coliseum...

  ...I find it hard to feel too badly for any business that can't keep a large store at 42nd St. across from Bryant Park.  You want to play in the most competitive strip of real estate in the nation, it ought not shock you that it is a hard market to thrive in.

  by Jay Elias on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:20:09 PM PDT

  •  Rent's through the roof

    Not an easy place to make a living selling books.

    As mentioned elsewhere, there still is/are the Strand(s).

    One of my faves if Gryphen, across the street from Zabar's on 80th and Broadway.  There's another smaller one on the other side of the street.  And two blocks down, is B&N...

    I remember the OLD Barnes and Nobel, the one you could play a football game in, complete with cheerleaders and marching band.  Then they cut it by 80%, and spread out like a weed throughout America.  I guess pruning is good for the grapes to grow.

    by Dcoronata on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 04:10:35 PM PDT

•  Just last month I was looking for Coliseum...

  I had hoped against hope it was somehow still in its original location, but I found only loading docks for that monstrosity that Trump has foisted on the city.

  I did not know it had relocated, and only wish I'd known.

  It really grieves me whenever an independent bookstore goes under. I still really miss Shakespeare & Co. on the upper west side, and all of the used bookstores that used to be in the area around the still-surviving Strand.

  by upstate guy on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:22:24 PM PDT

•  When I lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan

  I was within walking distance of four independent bookstores and a short subway ride from many others, including Coliseum.

  Sorry to hear the news.

  by chesapeake on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:23:34 PM PDT

•  I lived in NYC for 12 years and this is just sad.

  At this rate, the U.S.A. will just become Mexico 2.0 pretty soon and many of us will be defecting to Canada.

  by cloverdale on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:33:17 PM PDT

•  The Death of the Independent Bookstore

  Out here in San Francisco the independent bookstore is a dying breed. When it comes to burning books, I prefer to purchase them through the independent shop, because I know where my money is going - into the neighborhood, which I suppose translates into three dollar lattes at Starbucks. Or drugs or something. Staceys, Cody's (in San Francisco - the one in Berkeley went out)and the Green Apple are still in business, but taking a beating against Borders and Amazon. Good luck to them.

  by Jack Monroe on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:33:19 PM PDT

•  Powell's Books In Portland is Going Chainstore

  ...on a related note.  It's such a crappy idea... why go to the sattelite locations when they have nothing more than a Borders or Barnes & Noble?

  by Nulwee on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:46:45 PM PDT

•  Can sympathize. Here's a success story though -

  Last year an indie book store near Stanford U. closed suddenly due to excess debt.  Some of its financial problems stemmed from the uber high rent it was forced to pay because of the hot R.E. market caused by the dot com period prior to 2001.  Tack on the competition from lower priced Amazon and some other stores, and it was a double whammy.
   But the store had a very loyal clientel who rallied to get it re-opened, some of them invested new funds to pay off the debt, and they renegotiated the lease terms.  So far it has stayed open more than a year.  Yeah!
  http://www.keplers.com

  by FoundingFatherDAR on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 04:09:31 PM PDT

•  Either/Or bookstore in Hermosa Beach

  went out of business several years ago, but I think it was more due to a dispute between the owner and landlord than competition from bigger stores.  It had a very eclectic mix of books, ones that even Amazon probably doesn't carry.

  by FoundingFatherDAR on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 04:18:21 PM PDT

•  I am rec-ing this diary because

  independent bookstores are an endangered species. I LOOOOOOVE indie bookstores with the employee favorites....and political jabs and the fact that the people that work them have a BRAIN...god, we really need to be supporting our indie bookstores,,,,can you imagine life without them?....shit....

  by bic momma on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 04:37:39 PM PDT

  •  Several in NE

    that are literally miles and miles off the beaten path.  One specifically books only, the Traveler's Bookstore on the CT/ME border.  Maine has dozens, my favorite being the Big Chicken Barn in Ellesworth.  Found two pre-1900 World Almanacs there last September, for $10 and $12 that would have cost me at least twice, if not more on eBay.  These same books have reached triple digits at times!

    by Dcoronata on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 05:05:32 PM PDT

    •  Spirit of 76 Bookstore in Marblehead, MA

      a town institution.

      by bdbd on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 05:50:35 PM PDT

•  you mean the kind with bricks?

  I can't really remember the last time I walked into a brick-and-mortar bookstore, indie or not, since they tend not to have much selection in the niche stuff I like to look for---and I can't browse reviews while there unless I haul a laptop along with me.

  I do buy many of my books from even indie-er bookstores, though, usually so indie that they don't even have a store or office. :)  The internet is great when it comes to increasing the accessibility of niche publishers and even people who print and hand-bind their own books.

  by Delirium on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 05:15:20 PM PDT

•  Auntie's Books

  is a great bookstore if you're ever in downtown Spokane.. they have a cafe attached and some other eclectic shops in their building.

  by baccaruda on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 05:33:04 PM PDT

•  That's too bad. I loved the old

  Coliseum Books. Lots changing here in the city. Very sad.

  by Bouwerie Boy on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 05:34:44 PM PDT

•  Tattered Cover...

  I don't know if it is still there...but it was my favorite bookstore when I lived near Denver

  by kriser on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 06:50:15 PM PDT