Joanna
Lance Murdoch wrote:
>Michael Pugliese said:
>
>
>>Fight like hell, amazon.com, Borders and Barnes and Noble. Michael the
>>mgr. at longtime radical bookstore here, Modern Times says their sales are
>>down catastrophically. At the Borders by Union Square here, a good 50
>>copies of the new one by Amy Goodman, for example, flew out the window,
>>immediately. Sales at Modern Times, zilch, nada. Even when Bill Ayers came
>>to speak (and I almost jumped outta my chair, Bernadine Dohrn was inches
>>away from me, just behind) and it was packed, few bought his book. Took me
>>months on a waiting list at the SFPL to check it out for free.
>>
>>
>
>This assumes that the purpose of a radical bookstore is to sell commodities.
>If that were the case, I wouldn't volunteer my time at one. Our bookstore in
>New York ( http://www.maydaybooks.net ) has a lending library for books and
>videos; a leave one/take one bookshelf; a counter to leave or take free
>pamphlets, notices and newspapers; a "free box" and so forth. Of course, we
>sell books (and Zapatista coffee, and shirts, and buttons, and CDs and so forth)
>as well. Everyone volunteers their time, and we mostly hope to make enough to
>reorder books and pay rent. We're actually a couple of thousand ahead at this
>point.
>
>I see us as one of the most accessible anarchist-y places in New York. ABC No Rio
>is a bit out of the way, and one has to be in the groove of things already sometimes
>to know what events are taking place there. On the other hand, we are here seven
>days a week, from 3PM-9PM, selling books. Anyone can walk in, check out the bulletin
>board, browse the magazines and books, have a chat with whoever is volunteering. We're
>there so people can make connections with each other. Barnes and Noble tries to make
>their stores social centers to create book sales, we sell books so we can create a
>social center.
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