As COVID-19 spreads across the country, and lockdowns have been imposed by cities large and small, here is how independent bookstores are finding creative new ways to stay connected their customers.
It was a crisp mid-March afternoon, with winter almost over but spring not yet here. I took a walk that’s become a familiar journey over the past three decades: a five-minute stroll from my apartment through the leafy, winding streets of Manhattan’s West Village to the Three Lives & Company bookstore on West 10th Street.
Instead, when I arrived, I found waiting for me just outside the now locked entrance, as had been previously arranged, a copy of Kate Elizabeth Russell’s buzzy first novel, wrapped in brown paper with my name in black magic marker. Before collecting my book, I looked through the window and paused to wave at the owner, Toby Cox, who was working inside the store behind a stack of books in his trademark black beanie. Self-consciously socially distancing, we gave each other an awkward thumbs-up and shouted something vague and insufficient about hoping to meet soon.
The staff did not waffle. I once walked in and was greeted by Joyce McNamara, sitting at the cash register hidden by behind the array of signed books as if she was waiting for me. “” She was right. I had never heard of the writer, Jane Gardam, but I loved the book, which was about a lawyer whose last name is an acronym for “Failed in London, try Hong Kong.” My recollection is that the book came out in 2004. At that point, I’d been going to the store since 1990. Joyce had my number.
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