julie ink

mesjak:

Reading about the new Creve Coeur bookstore opening this weekend just west of St Louis, All On The Same Page (twitter: @AllontheSamePaj), I came across this article from earlier in September, talking about how the new bookstore came to be.

After working in and around indie bookstores for the last 20 years, I NEVER thought I’d see someone say this (at least, with a straight face): 

As much as i love and support the indie bookstores around St. Louis, I’m just left wondering how much more room there is in that scene before the market gets saturated with them.

I don’t know if commenter Darrell (the first commenter on the Riverfront Times article) is an experienced observer of the bookstore world or just a dude who comments on articles all over www.riverfronttimes.com, but either way, my thought is this:

It is amazing to me that there are enough indie bookstores with high enough profiles that people would even be able to think there might be too many bookstores for a city. 

If there is any one reason for St Louis residents to have begun thinking consciously about their local indie bookstores and feeling like their city is particularly flush with them again, it’s probably because of the efforts of the St. Louis Independent Bookstore Alliance. Kudos!

(All of this came to me via Shelf Awareness today.)

Interview with Simon Garfield, author of Just My Type. NPR hosts reveal their favorite typefaces.