Remember that little bookshop … the one just around the corner? It was always more than a bookshop, serving as a gathering place, a coffee shop, maybe even a community center.
That bookshop — or another one quite like it — is still alive and well in any number of neighbors … and they could sure use our support.
“There are few things as enjoyable as walking into a bookstore (mask on, socially distant!) and entering a new world,” writes Emilie Murphy in BK Mag. “Come, let us be your LeVar Burton and you can taste our reading rainbow: Here are nine independent Brooklyn bookstores to visit before your next book club meeting.”
Murphy has compiled a great list, complete with photography, of a trip around Brooklyn’s great neighborhoods — starting with Archestratus Books & Foods in Greenpoint with its gastronomic vibe and homemade Sicilian goodies.
From there it’s off to Books are Magic in Cobble Hill, with its unmistakable bubblegum pink mural on the side of the building. On to Crown Heights, where Cafe Con Libros holds the mantra that “shopping local is a political act” and the selection focuses on books by, for and about women and girls of color.
Park Slope, Flatbush, Williamsburg, Prospect Park and Bay Ridge are all home to their own unique shops that anchor the lives of their neighbors in so many ways.
Indie bookstores have had a tough go through the pandemic, so support them either in person (wear your mask) or online. Support Indies and shop small and local.