It looks like the bookstore scene in the Twin Cities is taking another hit. Bound to be Read has announced it is closing its St. Paul store. (Via Blog of a Bookslut). The closing comes just after readers of City Pages selected it as the best independent bookstore in the Twin Cities.
This also follows last year’s closing of Ruminator Books, which some attributed to the opening of Bound to be Read. Showing my age, I still deeply mourn the consolidation and ultimate closing of Odegaard Books in the Cities years ago.
It’s a shame when my favorite independent bookstores (San Francisco’s Green Apple Books and Seattle’s Elliot Bay Book Company) are more than 1,000 miles away. (No slight intended to Powell’s Books. I just have never been there.) Of course, since my book links point to Amazon, I may be an example of the struggle independents face.
A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.
Jerry Seinfeld
