by Chuck Munson Infoshop News (news.infoshop.org) Crossroads Infoshop & Radical Bookstore (www.crossroadskc.org) May 28, 2007
Kansas City -- As a booklover, librarian, writer, publisher and bookseller, nothing gets me more excited than visiting a new independent bookstore for the first time or being involved in the creation of a new infoshop or bookstore. Over the years I've been involved with three radical bookstore projects: Rainbow Bookstore (Madison, Wisc), the Brian MacKenzie Center (Washington, DC), and the Crossroads Infoshop & Radical Bookstore (Kansas City, MO). I helped start the Brian MacKenzie Center in 1999, which opened its doors in 2003 and is celebrating its fourth anniversary this month. I helped start the Crossroads Infoshop in 2004, which has existed in two locations before it moved into its new space this past week. Crossroads is a volunteer-run business and organization.
Books are so important to me that I became a librarian and have been involved in various indie bookstores for the past 15 years. I'm also a partisan of the alternative media, which has been suffering lately with the demise of several magazines and one trade association. I've always seen infoshops and indie bookstores as the lifeblood which connect independent publishers and authors with readers who are looking for an alternative to the latest presidential biography or Harry Potter tome.
So I had mixed feelings when I learned of a publicity stunt perpetrated by another indie bookstore in Kansas City this weekend. According to CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/05/28/bookburning.ap/index.html),
Tom Wayne, the owner of Prospero's Books in Kansas City, organized a bookburning of some of the books that Wayne claims that Prospero can't sell, "in protest of what he sees as society's diminishing support for the printed word." I have much respect for Prospero's Books, which is the premier used bookstore in Kansas City, known for its support of local authors. I'm reluctant to criticize another independent bookstore in a metropolitan area that is seriously deficient in indie bookstores. Wayne and his partner may be making a valid point about the decline on book reading in the United States, but the national publicity from this stunt not only makes Kansas City look ignorant and backward, but it does a disservice to other independent booksellers in the Kansas City area.
Like the Crossroads Infoshop and Radical Bookstore, which moved into bigger digs this past week. Yes, that's right, an anarchist bookstore in Kansas City is expanding. Our infoshop, bookstore and library is situated roughly three miles east of Prospero's. The Crossroads isn't situated on a tony restaurant row like Prospero's. Our store is on a block of mostly vacant storefronts, although the neighborhood is currently on the rebound.
While Prospero's was burning books this weekend, we were remodeling the space which will house our expanded infoshop and bookstore. I helped direct around a dozen volunteers this weekend as we spent two days fixing up our new space. As we worked, people actually came to our store and bought books. I even found time to get away from the noise of somebody power sanding a floor to meet with a salesperson from a nationally-known independent press.
The guys over at Prospero's Books (http://prosperosbookstore.com/) have a point about the decline of book reading in recent years. They just picked a poor way to express their concern and frustration. People are buying fewer books and magazines. This trend has affected all types of magazines, most acutely small independent magazines such as Clamor which ceased publication last year. From what I understand, the book industry has been less affected by these trends--people are still buying books. What alarms me is that there are millions of Americans who never read books and homes that don't have books in them.
Independent bookstores have been on the ropes for the past 20 years, with many of them going out of business as a result of corporate chains. The ones that still exist are facing new challenges to keeping their doors open. It shouldn't surprise anyone that frustrated bookstore owners like Tom Wayne and Will Leathem would feel compelled to stage their now infamous book-burning stunt. It is important that we don't take independent bookstores for granted, because we all walk on a fragile tightrope these days.
Still, we're expanding the anarchist bookstore a few miles away, so things can't be that bad.
You can express your opinion to Prospro's (info at prosperosbookstore.com) or you could do something more constructive, like visiting your local indie bookstore this week. Hug the owner if you have to, but more importantly buy a book and give it a place of honor at home.
Please feel free to support the work we are doing at the Crossroads Infoshop & Radical Bookstore. We're always interested in book donations. Hell, tell Propsero's to drop some books off with us. We won't burn them.
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