I've bought many a book at Giovanni's Room… so sad…

I bought my first gay books there

This is a great store – I hope they pull through!!

If they are asking for public donations, they need to become a community center. I don't donate to a private business.

C'est la vie!

Come on Fitz, all the GLBT businesses where I live host all kinds of free poetry readings, book signings, awareness & political evens, make all kinds of donations every time they are asked. It is not like the owners are driving around in Rolls Royces, at least where I'm at.

@Jaroslaw: I hear what your saying… but the right venue is a non-profit community center, IMO.

So is borders going out of business yet? That bookstore's pretty damn gay… I can haz book for reading.

It is said to see. Whenever I visit Philly I always make a point to buy something from there. I bought My "Noah's Arc" DVD's from there.

last time i checked the time of the brick and morter bookstore has passed.

you can get all the gay books you could ever want delivered right to your door without leaving the house. all small bookstores are closing.

@rick:
And that's a good thing?

Old-fashioned small bookstores are going the way of the dodo. It's evolution, just like the migration from sexual libertinism of the "gay liberation" era to today's battle for marriage equality. Times change, and institutions either change with them or die.

So much for talk of "not assimilating" and preserving "gay culture."

Some cold bitches up in here.

If you ask me the issue is also a lack of solid stewardship of our gay institutions. I see the network of gay bookstores as a huge resource that we will wish we hadn't let fade. But having been in that world on the business side for a number of years, I can tell you I was not terribly impressed with much of the talent pool behind it. There are great examples out there of bookstores that are thriving in spite of the climate, and I suppose its cliche to say how they are doing it — but just because its obvious doesn't mean its cliche. The bookstores that serve as venues, and put a lot of energy into the quality of what happens on site are the ones that seem to do well. (Powells in Portland is a great example, as is Kramer's on Dupont Circle in DC, or Housing Works in Soho, or Busboys and Poets also in DC) The list is long, but short on strictly gay establishments. Look at A Different Light, now hanging on by a toe in SF. For years it has been plagued by poor staffing, spotty inventory, whacky merchandising and a certain malaise with respect to its overall customer experience. To be honest I think the gay bookstores are a victim of their own bad habits — of being the only game in town for years and years, and suffering from a lack of vitality and energy and creativity — and a lack of vision — for what they could be.

@GranDiva: yes. they never have what you want and end up ordering it for you anyway.

The time of brick and mortar shops in general has come to an end. The good ones will always survive simply because they know what they are doing. The bad ones will go out of business. That is a good thing. When you can go to Border's to get a book that you have to order from a brick and mortar you are very quickly going to chose Border's instead of the brick and mortar. When it comes to things like books (all the same quality but not always the same price) you are going to chose price>service>product. When the service sucks and the price sucks you simply aren't going to buy from that store.

Who says they're "our" institutions?

They're the obsolete institutions of 1960s and 1970s gay guys who cruised through the porn mags, but like Playgirl and tea rooms, they're obsolete and vanishing in the new age of outness.

@rick:

You'll never know the joy of losing an afternoon in the strand, or a dark secondhand bookstore.