As news broke yesterday that Barnes & Noble will close its Upper West Side superstore in New York City, a number of readers reminded us of the 1998 romantic comedy, You’ve Got Mail–starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as rival bookstore owners. We’ve embedded the trailer above for your viewing pleasure.
Wikipedia summarized the plot: “[Hanks’ character] Joe belongs to the Fox family which runs Fox Books–a chain of ‘mega’ bookstores similar to Borders or Barnes & Noble. [Ryan’s character] Kathleen, on the other hand, runs the independent bookstore The Shop Around The Corner, that her mother ran before her. The central conflict of the film revolves around Kathleen and Joe building a relationship in virtual reality while they are business rivals in the ‘real world.'”
When the news broke, reader Hope Victoria tweeted: “Is Shop Around the Corner reopening?” Author Robin Benway agreed, tweeting “Save The Shop Around the Corner!”