WordWacky

Growing up in the Bronx, there was a bookstore in my neighborhood. It was exactly four long blocks away: past Stubies, the corner grocery store; past P.S. 56 and the row of private houses across from it, including my favorite, the one with the hex sign; down the hill and over to 204th St (pronounced by the neighborhood kids “two-fourth street”). Two-fourth was where the best sneaker store was, and the McDonald’s, and the Woolworths. It was also the home of a bookstore whose name I have since forgotten.

At the bookstore on two-fourth, the shelves were very sparse. Books appeared mostly cover-out, with book-sized spaces between them. I only remember visiting the young adult section, so it had to have been gone before I was a teenager. The owners weren’t particularly friendly — or particularly anything to me, and I don’t remember them at all.

This weekend a New York Times story reported on the imminent closing of the last independent, general interest bookstore in the Bronx. [via Lost City]

…because Paperbacks Plus is the only independent general interest bookstore in the Bronx, local bibliophiles will have to look elsewhere for their literature in a borough notoriously lacking in bookstores. Options include outposts of Barnes & Noble in Co-Op City, Yonkers and White Plains, each a 20-minute drive.

Drive? Did someone say drive? What does that mean? [Editor's note: Only one of those options is actually in the Bronx -- Yonkers and White Plains are both outside the City.]

To call Riverdale, where the bookstore resides, the Bronx is technically accurate, but ignores the spirit of both places. Riverdale, just over the bridge from Manhattan, is the most exclusive neighborhood in the Bronx. An even more exclusive neighborhood is tucked within the safe bosom of Riverdale: Fieldston. There are mansions in Fieldston, and it lends its name to a chi chi private school. Kids I knew from Riverdale wouldn’t write Bronx, NY on their return address — instead they created the fictional borough of Riverdale.

So if there ain’t a bookstore in Riverdale, there ain’t one in the Bronx. And despite the elitism of Riverdale, with its high rise buildings that had their own pools, the fact that the last mom-and-pop bookstore in the Bronx is gone makes me very very sad.

“So the store’s on sale for 20 percent off, huh?” Mr. Martin said, referring to the sign in the window, which bore the words “Everything on Sale — Even the Store!”

“Not quite,” Mr. Norberto replied. “But we’re hoping somebody steps up. Let me tell you something: This neighborhood, there’s a huge outcry.”

Jane Andersen, a nurse retired from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital who has lived in Riverdale for 18 years, echoed that sentiment.

“I think most Riverdalians do define themselves as being interested in reading,” Ms. Andersen said.

Riverdalians!

Riverdale is no closer to most Bronx residents than Yonkers or Co-Op City; this isn’t about access so much as it is about the death of a business model. The neighborhood bookshop is rare, and it’s dying out rapidly.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 7:03 pm and is filed under bookstores. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.