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Early Addition
When Gothamist was a wee middle school student on the Upper West Side we stumbled into the unique and wonderful experience of finding a bookstore to call ones own. In a perfect world everyone would know the feeling of a musty store where they could walk in, chat with clerks and other patrons, flip through a few books, learn something and feel completely at home. That bookstore, in our case, was the Applause Bookstore on 71st Street. One of the great theater bookstores it had a lot of everything for everyone (well, if you were interested in theater or film). But after 25 years the curtain is coming down on the store which in recent years has found much of its business sapped by the Internet, corporate bookstores, and patrons changing interests.
And so now Applause is going through an extended curtain call. Earlier the store announced that it would be closing at the end of June, a date which was then pushed back to the end of July, and has now been pushed once again to the end of August. But that is probably it. Applause was a great bookstore (one that launched a great publishing house which is no longer affiliated and is not closing) and so if you have the time, stop by and browse for a minute, take advantage of the closing sales and get a glimpse at the end of an era.
So that's our childhood bookstore (well and Forbidden Planet, but that's another story), what was yours?
Applause Books at 211 West 71st Street (212-496-7511)
Open Monday-Saturday 10-8, Sundays 12-6
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I am totally going to miss Applause Books. Awesome awesome books on movies and the arts.
I can sympathize. I lost my childhood bookstore earlier this year. Ruby's Book Sale closed on March 7. For me, that was the place to buy cheaper books and new and back issue magazines back in the 70s at great prices. I remember lunchtimes when there was hardly room to move inside the store. Chamber Street was a bargain hunter's paradise back then. There was an army-navy surplus store next door and Ralph's Discount City down the block. Ruby's owners blamed gentrification of the neighborhood as well as online booksellers for the drop in their business. A loft filled with a few residents simply doesn't provide the same number of potential customers as a packed commercial loft.
I haven't been able to get out to Chambers Street much in recent years, but whenever I did, I stopped in Ruby's. Even though I barely visited anymore, I'm going to miss the place. I wish Roberta and Marty all the best in their retirement.
Oops. I meant:
Ruby's Book Sale closed on March 7.
Wee middle school student on the upper west side, eh? wasn't bank street was it?
Long Live the Strand!
No, not Bank Street. The Center School (one of the first magnet schools, hidden inside P.S. 111 on 70th).