This Week in Indie Bookstores

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New York’s bookstore scene is about to be upended—McNally Jackson’s Prince Street location will close next summer when its lease expires. The owners have promised to stay in the neighborhood, although the many vacant store fronts in Manhattan suggest landlords are holding out for sky-high rents.

Canadian bookstore chain Indigo has a plan to fight trillion-dollar bookstore Amazon: come to America, eh.

It seems every city is opening a bookstore and bar. But what about a bookstore, bar, and a bakery?

Check out yet another amazing bookstore in China. If the Chinese government wasn’t frequently arresting booksellers, China would be a great place to read.

A Bushwick, Brooklyn bookstore is doing its part to resist alleged would-be-rapist-come-Supreme-Court-Justice Brett Kavanaugh by holding a ritual to hex him. Mark your calendars, New Yorkers: the event will be held on October 20.

Taiwan’s Eslite Bookstore will open locations in Japan as it tries building a global presence.

It’s probably going to get worse for Barnes & Noble.


Ian MacAllen is the author of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American (Rowman & Littlefield, April 2022). His writing has appeared in Chicago Review of Books, Southern Review of Books, The Offing, 45th Parallel Magazine, Little Fiction, Vol 1. Brooklyn, and elsewhere. He tweets @IanMacAllen and is online at IanMacAllen.com. More from this author →