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.