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One of the coolest independent bookstores in NYC is Idlewild on 19th street in Manhattan. If you are interested in the world -- anywhere! - check it out. Without doubt the best collection of books on Iceland. (or Serbia or Ghana)including guidebooks, fiction, architecture, etc.

Just opened a year ago (sheesh - tough timing) but has become a great venue for writers speaking about their work.

Specialty bookstores - be they for lovers of canines, the military, travel,etc - may soon be the only bookstores that can compete. They have books the chains do not, they have staff who obviously know their subject matter, and by selling on the web they can keep prices down.

I'll be so sorry if the Morningside book store, at 114th & broadway, closes because it supplies more general books, versus other stores in the neighborhood. The latter supplies wonderful textbooks mainly. the ones such as that on 111th St. don't seem cozy; they seem like places where you go to buy your course books or othervery specialized works.

books are crazy expensive. i get everything from the library now. i can't afford to buy books from large or independent booksellers. if i purchased books i wouldn't be reading as much or taking as many chances on books i'm not familiar with. kindle isn't much better because it's $400 dollars and then about $10 a book. that's still not better than free.

What about art books? There seems to be so many of them.

Kathleen Rooney wrote a book called Reading With Oprah: The Book Club that Change America, which tracks "the Oprah factor".

Mr. Zook's bookstore is an integral aspect to my Brooklyn life. His staff has made wonderful recommendations for my library, something I don't find in bigger bookstores. I might browse in Barnes and Nobles, but I buy at his store. I like supporting smaller bookstore and supporting my neighborhood. I cant' thank him enough for his wonderful store.

Starred reviews? Meaningless. If the chains won't sell you, your book becomes invisible.

Take a look at Books & Books in Miami, a very succesful business. It is expanding this year again ans it is the driving force behind the International Book Fair of Miami.

I try to shop independent when I can, but I wasn't surprised to see my local store in Jersey City go under. In this neighborhood full of parents w/young kids, he never reliably stocked the board book classics for baby presents. That seemed like a big business mistake to me. I had a similarly critical thought about Oscar Wilde Books in the Village: it didn't seem like a really exciting selection of LGBT books to me, just like a store. So, I'm sorry to see it go--really sorry--but not totally surprised.

What I cannot understand--and what makes me want to open a bookstore--is how really good bookstores, like Books of Wonder, don't have as interesting a selection as I'd like.

I'm becoming cranky in my old age.

But there is nothing better than a really, really thoughtfully curated store. Three Lives always amazes and impresses.

I recently went to a store on the UES, and after looking around, finally asked if they had a poetry section. The guy behind the counter just said "no." I thought that was pretty scary, and thought it was probably due to what this show's about.

I still go to the Brick & Mortar Book stores because I find that the Websites (Amazon, B&N, etc) tend to list books organizes the searches by POPULARITY algorithms. It is no longer possible to find a PURE "NEWLY PUBLISHED" search list.
SO I am more likely to see a new unknown author's book on the shelf in a a store than to see it listed on Amazon.
If the Author is NEW, I won't know his or her name, and if you don't know the name-- they don't exist in the Website Search Engine if the website engine only sets itself up to push "Popular" listings at the user.

I live on the UWS and a bookstore near bookculture called the Morningside Bookshop is unfortunately shutting down. I would like Leonard Lopate to mention this bookstore as it is not a lost cause yet; such places need all the support we can give them. Check out the monthly notes at the bookstore's website. Morningsidebookshop.com

thank you.

The American Booksellers Association is the national trade group for independent bookstores. We work every day, in many ways, - from advocacy, business services, marketing, and more -- to help our members survive and thrive. ABA knows more about indie booksellers than most other entities, and we would love for our incoming CEO, Oren Teicher to be able to speak on the issues. He is available to call in for today's show. He can be reached at 800 637-0037 x 6611. Thank you.
Meg Smith