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I’m in NYC again, for a scant 24 hours (more like 20, actually), but I usually manage to pack in quite a bit of activity once I get off of the train. I won’t bore you here with details of drinks and dinner (although I will say: Brooklyn pizza rocks), had with my friend The Vittles Vamp, but I wanted to tell you about one ray of light in the book world considering what a rough week it’s been for books and publishing all around. 

The Vamp lives in historic Brooklyn Heights, but wanted to take a quick trip with me to Cobble Hill so we could have an exquisite cocktail at The Clover Club (OK, it was two, and OK, I said I wasn’t going to bore you with details, but work with me…). En route we saw Book Court, just off Atlantic Avenue.

We weren’t able to stop at Book Court last night, but I visited the store in early November with my friend Penmarric (some names are changed to protect the innocent, others the guilty…). I was thrilled the minute I stepped in; Book Court is one of those stores where you don’t know where to look first. Every cover grabs your eye, and there are curated shelves of fiction, nonfiction, staff picks, neighborhood bestsellers, and more. 

But the good news came when we wound our way from the first room to the second and discovered that the store has recently expanded into a third room, full of more books for everyone (it’s not, as often happens in neighborhood stores, simply an expanded children’s section-cum-playroom). Here’s an article about the expansion from The Brooklyn Paper.

I’m here in Brooklyn this a.m. working on The Vamp’s MacBook — a new experience for this PC user. So I’m having a little trouble figuring out how to post photos in my usual fashion. Forgive me for not putting up a picture of Book Court — but as soon as I can, I’ll rectify that. 

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Last week over at my other blog I wrote this post about Olsson’s Books closing down permanently. I indulged myself, too, in a brief rant about book people not putting their money where their mouths are, and was called out on that by a commenter named Katie who said “Interesting post from someone who’s constantly pushing e-books and talking about how paper books waste natural resources. If people heed your past advice about switching to electronic, pretty soon there will be no independents and, eventually, not even any more chains.”

My response to her comment was “Katie, thanks for reading, and I hear you — but I don’t think that e-books and paper books are mutually exclusive. I read and enjoy both, and I’ve written previous posts on independent bookstores I shop at, too. I wonder how e-books and consciousness about paper and shipping resources can be combined with a great shopping/community experience? This isn’t a question that has been solved yet, although I know people are trying — but I’d welcome your thoughts about it.”

I’ve been thinking about the tension between brick-and-mortar book shopping and online book shopping ever since, and I must admit I remain conflicted. I wish I could come down firmly on one side or the other, but here’s the problem: I love to read far too much. I’ll take good reading material any way that I can get it! If a book I really want to read comes to my attention when I’m out at a store, I’ll buy it; if I read about it online and can click through to buy it there, I’ll buy it; if I learn about a hot new book in a newspaper (which I tend to read online!), I’ll buy and download it on my Kindle.

I think I’ll just have to remain conflicted. If it means I have more reading material than less, I can live with it.

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Remember last week when I said I’d be blogging every day? Hahahahhaahahaaaaaahhaa. I’ll get there; it’ll just take me a week or three. I’ll lean on the tried-and-true bibliophile’s excuse: there are too many books and not enough time. In the meantime, I thought I’d point you to my last two Publishers Weekly blog posts, since both of them are DC-oriented:

The Olsson’s Conundrum: Take a look at the comments on this post and tell me what you think. What is the future of bookselling?

Books in Bits: Have you picked up a copy of Bit o’ Lit? This DC-only (for now) commuter read contains 5-6 excerpts of hot new books in each issue.

Tomorrow you’ll get an absolutely fresh new post, and thanks to all of you who nabbed copies of Jonathan Miles’s Dear American Airlines – those books will go out soon, and I hope you’ll enjoy the read.

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