In the Bay area, the struggle for Black Oak Books to stay open is chronicled in the SF Chronicle by Heidi Benson. Last week, owner Don Pretari sent up a trial balloon, inviting someone, anyone, to buy one or both Black Oaks stores — the Berkeley location on Shattuck Avenue or the San Francisco store on Irving Street. Last week, he sent up a trial balloon, inviting someone, anyone, to buy one or both Black Oaks stores — the Berkeley location on Shattuck Avenue or the San Francisco store on Irving Street.
Meanwhile, the New York Sun profiles five new-ish New York-based independent bookshops, all of whom will be gifted with the responsibility of staying open in what PW ranked the worst city for bookselling – as there’s only one bookstore for every 43,000 residents. But 32 year old Adam Tobin, a Brown University grad who has just opened an eponymous bookshop in Park Slope, is sanguine about why he set up shop during seemingly dire straits. “Doesn’t everyone want to have a bookstore?”