By Sarina Greene
Unnameable Books, 615 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238. Taken by Greene, Sarina. Nov. 15. 2024
For years, independent bookstores have been a debate of will they, won’t they. With big industries like Amazon and Barnes & Nobles acting as a chain monopoly for book selling, independent bookstores have become less of a spectacle. That was until 2020—the world was disastrously hit by COVID-19 & forced into lockdown in order to stop the spread of the deadly virus. In Brooklyn, NY many independent bookstores were shut down only to come back a few short months later with new policies, masks, & hybrid or all online events. People were drawn to reading or buying books in order to keep themselves from dwindling from low amusement. As many independent bookstores had the ability to switch all functions to online selling, their businesses were booming, & people were discovering their love for literature—including me, who endlessly scrolled through the web looking for online events & activities.
Unnameable Books is a new & used independently owned business that specializes in selling poetry & critical theory. They own about 60% used books & 40% new. The store has been around for about 17 years, originally curated by Adam Tobin on Bergen Street, & was later moved to Vanderbilt Ave and renamed. It originally was named “Adam’s Books,” but it needed a fresh new change, so workers thought it would be comical if they named it Unnameable as it should no longer be a person's name, also taking inspiration from “The Unnamable” novel by Samuel Beckett.
Walking into Unnameable is like entering an over-cluttered broom closet in the best way—where you can find treasures hidden under the floorboards, or in this case, the rustic book shelves. There are stacks of travel postcards most likely from the various small town authors who come in & out of Brooklyn, dropping off published copies of their work. The draw of Unnameable isn’t just the conveniently low prices for thrifted books (ranging from $7 to $12), but also the physical space itself, which allows people to experience the thrill of hand-holding a once-loved book.
The manager and events coordinator at Unnameable Books, Elijah (Ely) Watson, started working at Unnameable a year after the COVID-19 outbreak in February 2021. He spent five months continuously sending resumes to Unnameable because—from word of mouth—Unnameable was considered one of the best bookstores in Brooklyn. Back at home in Wisconsin, he worked in bookstores for thirteen years before finding his home at Unnameable. To him, an independent bookstore is an establishment that lends itself to the people who inhabit it. Watson has expressed: “There is such a variety of stuff that we do here that it kind of suits the experience of coming here and not necessarily be looking for something, but being able to find it.”
What independent bookstores have that corporations like Barnes & Nobles don’t is the support from smaller indie presses, and the emphasis on new reimagined authors or thinkers. These corporations also don’t host open mics, poetry readings, book readings, & author discussions in the same way small bookseller spaces do. It feels bookstores are one of the few small businesses that can still exist throughout anything because there is a kind of tactileness that people like. The internet is only getting worse, but that feeling of being in person can’t be replicated. “There is nowhere to replicate that feeling of being in the world,” says Watson.
“That idea that independent bookstores are radical isn’t true. Something that all physical bookstores should aspire to have is that it creates a place for people to go.”
~Ely Watson
Greenlight bookstore, established by Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo, is another famous independently owned business that has a new & operational approach to being a bookshop. Stockton grew up in a small town named Bakersfield, California, & moved to New York to attend college at NYU. That is when she met a teacher who would soon introduce her to the gem of little bookshops. Stockton started working at a bookshop named Three Lives Bookstore as recommended by that professor, & realized this was the lifelong career she wanted to pursue. And so, Greenlight was born as a product of Stockton winning a business plan competition, & a Fort Greene group who was actively looking for someone to open a local bookstore. In October 2009, Greenlight was established as the Fort Greene treasure of a bookshop. The proof being in the name Greenlight, that is both an obvious nod to Fort Greene, a symbolism of a safe place, and the novel that tackles tragic unconditional love: The Great Gatsby.
The bookstore mainly sells fiction, biographical nature, and children's literature. Greenlight is known for doing many book launches, midnight release parties, & annual parties before the Brooklyn Book Festival in April. It’s a lot bigger than Unnameable Books, & doesn’t sell any used books because that is an entirely different business model, one that requires constant communication with locals, donators, & indie presses, while Greenlight focuses on stacking hot books on the shelves. From the expansive backrooms of the children's section to the overwhelmingly dynamic types of fiction towards the front entrance, Greenlight guides people to their feel-good comfort stories, where they may escape to paradise.
Stockton is also on the board of the American Booksellers Association, an organization which spends time every year pondering what it means to be an independent bookstore. To her, bookshops are meant to highlight community and authors—although that isn’t in the definition of them, that is the purpose most of them have. There are still common perceptions that there aren’t any independent bookstores anymore, while shop owners are flailing their arms, wondering if they must be chopped liver.
The work day of a bookseller seems far from easy & relaxing, especially when running the business from the ground up on your own. “Financial sustainability is not a given in a bookstore, even a successful bookstore has a really thin profit margin just because of how our business model works,” says Stockton, “And you do not get to sit around and read.”
Greenlight Bookstore, 686 Fulton St, Brooklyn, NY 11217. Taken by Greene, Sarina. Nov. 15. 2024
Books Are Magic is a Brooklyn based bookstore, also independently owned, that exists in two locations—on Smith St & Montague St—known to sell literary fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, & essay collections. The store feels like a hidden nook. There’s even a children's section with a small cubby to sit. Most of the selection is brand new books that the staff hand pick. Just like the other independent bookstores, Books Are Magic also does in-person events for their authors. Amali Gordon-Buxbaum, the job events coordinator for Books Are Magic, says when planning events she has to think about what they call their “hedgehog,” which is the things they are good at, the things that make them money, & the things they are passionate about.
Buxbaum discovered Books Are Magic through the grapevine. Books Are Magic has a huge following across the country & the world, so when she saw that they were hiring, Buxbaum jumped on the chance to be able to work at a place like this. Now having been at Books Are Magic for three years, she has found a love for the details within putting together events at off-site venues, connecting with communities, giving voices to debut authors, & creating a safe place for trans or writers of color. Yet, finding the time within the lines to continue her writing practice seems much easier for her compared to the people at Unnameable or Greenlight. However, according to her she “does not have the mental capacity to work on a full work novel.”
To Buxbaum an independent bookstore is a bookseller operation that has visible grass roots that reflect the owners & workers values or community values. It feels like a homey bubble where kids & their nannies can spend time. The biggest part of the job is the constant emailing to schedule book launches (every Tuesday of the week as Tuesday is publication day), but without it, the publishing world would feel out of reach to her, as it is really insular & haunted to the outside individual.
During the height of COVID-19, Books Are Magic had to switch to online orders, which was hard on the staff at the time, but the silver lining of it all was that the national following of the bookstore benefited extremely with virtual events becoming a priority, & bookselling beginning to exist online for them as well. Bauxbam expressed that she has no idea what the national following would look like if they didn’t have that reason to branch out.
It seems there are more independent bookstores than ever after years of a gradual decline due to corporate conglomerates such as Amazon & Barnes & Nobles. Despite the market feeling smaller than it should, there is something refreshing about the hope many owners & booksellers have about independent bookstores remaining a necessary commodity for a very long time. So next time you want to take a walk through Brooklyn, & have the itch to discover something new, visit one of these places.
“We are entering a time where safe places like this are diminishing. And this store for me really does feel like a safe place.”
~Amali Gordon-Buxbaum
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