A Space for Books

Above: Montreal dropped a lot of truth bombs on my head.

Friends,

Carolina and I recently returned from visiting our neighbors to the north. Fortunately, Canada did not hold us down and force socialized healthcare on us, but they did provide some a lovely weather break from Texas summer and preposterously delicious baked goods. I think a bagel changed my life.

We visited a lot of little book stores during our trip, including a brightly lit minimalist place in downtown Toronto, a dingy used bookstore that still had a CD and DVD section in Montreal, and the famous Drawn and Quarterly (which is located conveniently close to the aforementioned life-altering bagel). Those stops, along with the news that B&N might be on the brink of death , the fairly recent launching of Books are Magic , and the appearance of an Amazon bookstore in Austin all have gotten me thinking about the brick-and-mortar retail venues for books. On top of all that, I received an email asking to help Kickstart a new local bookstore literally while I was writing this letter.

First of all, let me start by saying that I don’t think we should be mourning the loss of Barnes and Noble as the New York Times headline recommends. While we might look back on the era of Borders, Books-A-Million, B&N, and Waldenbooks as being in the glorious pre-Amazon age when bookselling was noble and the publishing industry was slightly less despairing, keep in mind that those big box (big shelf?) stores were bad for local, independent bookstores. Also, while we might hear doom-and-gloom about the retail book industry on a regular basis (and I think everyone is invested in this image , it’s very romantic to be the last bastions holding out), and we might be tempted to link the death of B&N with the death of bookstores in general, the data simply does not bear that out. From 2009–2018, the number of independent bookstores has grown 40% . Now, out of that 2,321 stores, I’m going to bet a lot operate in an unofficial non-profit capacity in a way that big box stores can’t, but it’s hardly the crisis that gets painted. Finally, one more point against hand-wringing over B&N: I think it’s pretty definite that if they had made the right decisions and ended up in the position that Amazon is now in as the definitive bookseller in America that they’d be just as cutthroat and dampening to the industry as Amazon.

So, with that caveat out of the way, what do successful independent bookstores actually look like? Another caveat: it’s hard to know which bookstores are “successful” beyond just remaining open. Few expand, few have a robust online presence. The aforementioned Montreal-based Drawn and Quarterly started as a magazine and is now, in addition to having two physical bookstore locations, also a publisher. It focuses just on comics/graphic novels for all ages, though it also hosts authors of other media (including Alexander Chee, who was there just before I was and took a bathroom selfie ). This seems to be the direction a lot of bookstores are going — to focus on a very specific niche instead of trying to be all things to all people. This includes places like BookWoman and Malvern Books here in Austin. Many bookstores also do more than just sell books. They might operate as a small publisher, have a coffeeshop, or even be part-bookseller, part-bar like The Wild Detectives in Dallas. Our largest independent bookstore in Austin, BookPeople, (which last I checked was #4ish largest in the US) gets a lot of traffic from events, hosting authors almost every day of the week (including a lot of children’s authors, who draw huge crowds). Powell’s of Portland seems to be offering itself as a moral alternative against Amazon for online shopping, which is incredibly smart. I think there’s a lot of people out there that want the convenience of online shopping for various reasons (including, very importantly, lack of a nearby bookstore) but are also starting to feel like they shouldn’t give money to Amazon. Speaking of Amazon, in their deployments of brick-and-mortar stores, they’ve also gone specific and narrow. They aren’t carrying a huge number of books (to the point where every book is face forward so you can see the cover), instead relying on showing the bestsellers and then putting recommendations (“If you liked…”) next to those bestsellers. A friend of mine said it was kind of nice to not be completely overwhelmed with selection. But, again, Amazon has the money to experiment and if they don’t have a book they can assume their customer will just order it from them online anyways, so I don’t know how much we can learn from them.

It does seem like used book stores have fared worse, but I don’t know that that’s really a bad thing. While Half-Price Books is still growing, the handful of independent used places I was aware of in Austin 5+ years ago are all closed now. The only ones I see traveling traffic in mostly older/niche/rare used books.

The long and short of it is that my losing money in retirement plan of opening a hybrid bookstore-coffeeshop-bakery-bed and breakfast is still on. I’ll let you know when it’s open.

Further Reading:

• This long profile of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is so well-crafted and fascinating. It weaves a lot of fat strands together into something so textured and wide-ranging. Highly recommend — it’s worth the length.
• There’s a new Brad Leone video out: giardiniera . I have some fermenting for another day or two. I’ve made it before, but just with vinegar, not with fermentation, so I’m excited.
• Mario Odyssey is amazing.
• Watched Arrival on the plane to Canada and wow, that was a good movie. I should watch more movies.
• Did you know you wanted to read a piece about Japanese steakhouses/hibachi restaurants in the South ? You do, you do. RIP, Hananoki.
• May 18 .

I hope you’re staying cool. A recommendation: put mint in everything. Top your rice with it, put it in your tea or water or cocktail, chew it while you’re bored or thinking. Go mint crazy.

Drop me a line.

-g