More Indie Bookstore Milestones

’Tis the season for big birthdays for indie bookstores. Last week, BTW featured four stores celebrating major milestones, and here we tip our hats to four more.

Unabridged Bookstore: 30 Years in the Same Location

Unabridged Bookstore, which started in 1980 at its current location on Chicago’s Broadway, is celebrating its 30^th anniversary, and the Chicagoist recently spoke to owner Ed Devereux to try to find the secret to its longevity.

Of the store’s beginnings, Devereux told the Chicagoist: “I wanted to sell all kinds of books, and to have the bookstore reflect the neighborhood. So, I decided to start a general bookstore with a large gay section that would almost be like a store-within-a-store. The store would be a go-to place for everyone in the neighborhood, both gay and straight.”

Devereux opened Unabridged Bookstore with two other partners, who have since left the business, in a space that had previously housed a beauty parlor. He attributes much of the bookstore’s success to its location and to the fact that it opened as a general bookstore with a large gay section rather than as a specialty store. “Especially with the advent of online bookselling, gay bookstores, along with any kind of specialty-only bookstores, have taken a big hit,” Devereux said. “By opening in 1980 as a general bookstore, we have had a long time to grow and establish the store and be relevant to a very wide population.”

One of the top-selling categories in the store is its children’s section. “Each section takes up about the same square footage in our store,” Devereux told the Chicagoist, “but we do happen to sell a lot more children’s books than gay books these days…. Certainly, the kids’ section and the gay section do not conflict with one another, but rather, complement each other in serving our diverse neighborhood.” Remainders and sale books also do much to draw people into the store.

Bridge Street Books Celebrates 30 Years

Bridge Street Books,which celebrated its 30^th anniversary this fall, was recently profiled by the Munch, the student newspaper of the Smith Undergraduate Student Association. The Washington, D.C.,store, owned by Philip Levy, specializes in politics, poetry, philosophy, film, and cultural studies. On two floors, in about 1,000-square-foot,there are approximately 30,000 titles.

Levy told Munch that, when he was drawing up plans for Bridge Street, he visited Olsson’s Books & Records for inventory ideas. He also modeled the store on St. Mark’s Bookshop in New York City and Blackwell’s Books in Oxford, England.

Frequent Bridge Street customer Katy Bohinc told the newspaper:“You can be stimulated just by walking into this bookstore in a very positive way. Just by looking at the titles, you’re going to see stuff that is interesting, challenging, inspiring, and heartening. There’s a strong intellectual rigor.… It’s easy to engage with what’s going on in here.”

The store relies on such word-of-mouth endorsements and its poetry readings to help build its customer base. The recession has been “tough,” said Levy, but the store is persevering. “We don’t make a fortune here, but we get by. I just wanted to create a good bookstore…and I did it.”

Diane’s Books Hosts Halloween/Anniversary Party

Diane Garrett, as the Queen of Hearts, with her husband Gordon, as the Mad Hatter.

Diane’s Books of Greenwich, Connecticut, celebrated 20 years in business this month with a combination Halloween/anniversary party on Sunday, October 31, from noon - 4:00 p.m. Friends, colleagues, authors, customers, and kids were invited and encouraged to wear Halloween costumes.

The 2,500-square-foot store, which opened on November 3, 1990, stocks 20,000 titles, split between children’s and adult books.

Owner Diane Garrett attributes the store’s success to her passion for reading and her focus on selecting the right titles for her customers, said Jean Gillespie of Diane’s Books. Garrett has also become adept at matching the right book with a “reluctant reader,” said Gillespie. “So often she sees very capable children reading books that are well past their years.... She also is a strong believer that no one is ever too old to be read to and that there is no such thing as ‘outgrowing’ a picture book!”

Subterranean Books Turns 10

Subterranean Books in St. Louis, Missouri, which opened in October 2000, was recently celebrated by Student Life, the independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis. Student Life described the store (whose tagline is “Independent Since the Turn of the Century!”) as a “welcome oasis from the bustling surroundings of restaurants and shops.”

The store, whose focus is on indie bestsellers, cult classics, quirky small presses, and classics, is known for its careful and wide selection of titles. Staffer Alex Weir told the newspaper that the curation comes from “a combination of personal preference and guessing what customers might be interested in…and listening to our customers for feedback on what they want.”

The Subterranean staff have a broad working knowledge of each category, and owner Kelly von Plonski told Student Life that “one of the requirements of working here is you have to be curious about things you don’t know about. If you’re interested in poetry, you also have to want to learn about something like crime books.”

The bookstore has a full events calendar and shows local artists’ work.