NYT: Literary City, Bookstore Desert

Surging Rents Force Booksellers From Manhattan 

 Great article in the New York Times about the sad disappearance of bookstores in Manhattan:

Rising rents in Manhattan have forced out many retailers, from pizza joints to flower shops. But the rapidly escalating cost of doing business there is also driving out bookstores, threatening the city’s sense of self as the center of the literary universe, the home of the publishing industry and a place that lures and nurtures authors and avid readers. 

In the past, those smaller stores were pushed out by superstores — a trend memorably depicted in the 1998 film “You’ve Got Mail” — leaving book lovers worried that someday, Manhattan would be dominated by chain bookstores. But now the chain stores are shutting down, too.

They interview the owner of McNally-Jackson, the bookstore I am dying to get "Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?" in -- feel free to REQUEST it there! -- who talks about how Manhattan real estate is so ridiculously priced that she was forced to open a second location in Brooklyn.

Read HERE.