Why Queens Needs More Bookstores

It’s midnight, May 11th, and I’m running through my itinerary in my head as I wait for the shuttle to take me from O’Hare International Airport to the Hotel Essex in Chicago. Go to the convention and talk about the initiative. Don’t forget to get your badge. Hand out your business cards. The shuttle arrives and I pile in with five other people I don’t expect to ever see again.

Are you here for the Book Expo? one of them asks me. Yes I am, are you? I’m handed a business card and asked which publisher I’m representing.

I’m not here with a publisher, I say. I’m representing a bookstore. Well, an almost bookstore. We’re called The Queens Bookshop Initiative, and we’re trying to open up a second independent bookstore in Queens. I pause and add, New York, suddenly remembering that the speech I’d become so accustomed to giving was falling on ears outside of my borough for the first time. In that moment, the scope of what Vina, Natalie and I had been working on for so long seemed so small. We’re just trying to open up one bookshop, in one borough, next to one city, on one side of the country. And then another passenger turns around to face me. I’ve heard of you, she says. It’s good, what you’re doing. Queens needs more bookstores. We all need more bookstores.

It’s good, what you’re doing.

Bookstores, as businesses, are special. No other retail or service establishment is met with as much cynicism as bookstores. New clothing shops or coffee houses don’t need proof that their community wants them around, but a bookstore needs to justify its very existence. That’s why, when we say that The Queens Bookshop Initiative is a community effort to bring a second bookstore to Queens, we are not exaggerating. From town hall meetings where people need to request a bookstore [1], to elaborate crowdfunding campaigns [2], most, if not all, independent bookstores need to rally their communities behind them. While that might sound disheartening, it is actually inspiring. That means no other retail industry is as supported by its customers as independent bookstores are. Communities feel invested in their local bookshops, not just because it’s where they can get that summer reading title for their kid, but because it’s a place that they helped build. People are proud of their bookstores.

Queens needs more bookstores

Queens County, New York, is home to roughly 2.3 million people. It used to be home to three large Barnes and Noble Booksellers to service that population, but by January 1st, 2016, all three had closed their doors. Suddenly, without that big box shadow, an incredibly diverse borough was left with one general purpose independent bookstore, The Astoria Bookshop in Astoria. It seemed as if that store would have to act as a literary hub for everyone. Queens found itself in a literary desert.

That isn’t to say that there are no literary oases in Queens. On the contrary, Queens has a thriving literary community, if you know where to look for it. Scheduled poetry readings, such as InspiredWord NYC in Long Island City and First Tuesdays in Jackson Heights allow writers from all over the borough to share their work. Book clubs meet regularly, and events like the Queens Lit Fest try to bring local authors and readers together in a celebration of all things written word. We even have our own lit mag, The Newtown Literary Magazine. That’s what is so amazing about the Queens literary community; all of these groups are existing simultaneously, all caring about the same things. With a community this active, it’s surprising that there are so few bookstores to anchor them along the way.

The handful of specialty and used bookshops that do exist in the borough work hard to serve as those anchors; however, shops like Libreria Barco De Papel in Elmhurst, New Life Christian Bookstore in Jamaica and Turn the Page Again in Bayside, all cater to specific demographics or interests, making it difficult for any one store to unite the borough. But that is exactly the point—no one store can do it alone. Not even two or three stores. For a borough as expansive as Queens to further strengthen its literary community, its network of indie bookshops needs to grow and work together. A second general purpose bookstore can support the existing specialty shops while still building its own unique following. The bookshops will never run out of readers.

Some might not notice this lack of bookstores because Queens also has libraries. In fact, an argument has been made that Queens has some of the best libraries in the city. With a system like that, who needs bookstores? It took the voice of a ten-year-old boy to really put it into words for us. On April 30th, we were celebrating Independent Bookstore Day (without a physical bookstore) by hosting Storytime and Yoga in the Park at a playground in Forest Hills, Queens. In between talking with the local newspapers, taking photos and greeting parents, we’d set up a small table full of our old books for kids and adults to browse and take home with them. One little boy, Malachi, walked away with an armful of books. When we asked him why he chose the ones he did, he said, “Well, I’ve read all of them already; I borrowed them from the library. But I love them all so much, I want to keep them. That’s the problem with libraries—you don’t get to keep the books. That’s why I like bookstores!” It was a sentiment that the three of us already knew and shared, but were shocked to hear it coming candidly from a child. We knew we weren’t crazy. People don’t want to just read books, they want to own them, live with them, live through them. Queens wants, and needs, more bookstores.

We all need more bookstores

The “literary desert” in Queens is not unique. In our modern lives we are constantly fed the narrative of the “fast paced, digital world.” People shop online, date online and read books online. We are glued to our phones, devouring news, entertainment and street maps measured in data usage and wifi access. It has become the expectation that information is consumed in pixels and bytes. That is why, when many people hear that you want to open a bookstore, their first reaction is confusion. An analogue experience is considered either kitsch or a luxury, but never a necessity.

However, it is not an overstatement to say that we all need more bookstores. We need that step away from the immediate and the intangible, and we need to embrace measured experience and concrete interactions. Brick and mortar bookstores provide, for their communities, things that the Internet never can. You might be able to buy a book through Amazon, but you won’t be able to meet the author. You can leave a review on GoodReads, but you can’t see the excitement on someone’s face when they agree with you. You can’t ask the Internet what its favorite book is.

Beyond being a respite from the blue light of computer screens, independent bookstores serve as places of learning outside the classroom. Most are also the central hub for their neighborhoods, bringing the community together through events and workshops. Sometimes, like they were for us, bookstores are a child’s home away from home.

While bookstores will always have a timeless romance that surrounds them, they also provide quantifiable benefits to the communities they are a part of. It has been proven that money spent in an independently owned business, like a bookstore, is three times more likely to stay within the community, spinning off into revenue for neighboring local businesses and services [3]. When people support independent bookstores, they are supporting the growth of the economy at large, and the development of diversity. Studies also show that independent bookstores build the overall character of the community in which they operate. They become destinations that pull more visitors and investors into their neighborhoods and increase the quality of life for their local residents through the promotion or literacy, community building events, and charitable donations [4]. While the idea of more bookstores is romantic, it is also incredibly practical.

“It’s good what you’re doing. Queens needs more bookstores. We all need more bookstores.” In one piece of encouragement our Queens-centric initiative, which had, for a moment, felt so small, became part of a larger narrative. Independent bookstores are growing. They are solidifying their place in this crazy digital world, and we’re a part of that. And Queens will be better for it.

You can support the Let’s Bring A Bookshop Back to Queens NY Kickstarter here.

^[1] Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn NY

^[2] The Ripped Bodice, Los Angeles, CA

^[3] Studies done by the Institute for Local Self Reliance, 2014

^[4] “Amazon and Empty Storefronts”, developed by the American Booksellers Association, 2016