I hate having to make this post today. My favorite bookstore and coffee shop has closed . My friends the Van Eatons ran Jonathan Benton Bookseller in Mountain Brook Village for years, and it was the kind of bookstore where I could wander around and get great personal service and helpful suggestions ( do you get that in the mega stores? I think NOT ) . The Daily Cup in the front of the bookstore had the best peach muffins on the entire planet and some mighty fine gazpacho and pimento cheese. They also knew I wasn't a coffee snob and didn't try and talk "Starbucks" to me! They closed before I could have one last muffin. I'm sad today. They will be missed.
21 comments:
So sad to see something like this slip away... You have made a loving tribute.
I love independant shops and hate to see them disappear. So many of them... such a shame.
What a sad post... I feel for these small shops, and their customers when they shut. IT's another light that as gone out in what I bet was at one time a very bright friendly area.
That is really sad!!
You gave your friends a great and surely well-deserved tribute with this photo and text, V!!
It's a shame 'small businesses' like this one are closing doors! You can see this everywhere around here too thanks to megastores and malls... and more malls... and now to this awful crisis! Well, at least your nice photo is a great souvenir!
Small businesses deserve so much of attention these days. It's a reminder for us.
So sorry to hear this, Virgina. I remember when you first posted photos of this store, and I was thinking that I'd love to visit it too.
Oh how sad, Virginia. So many businesses are closing but it is particularly sad to see a bookshop go. Many close because of on-line competition - they simply can't compete although I've never noticed an online seller sell muffins.
Oh that's a great losing, Virginia. I make sence of your sadness.
Just I have read the novel from Zafon: The Angel's Game. I was very impressed from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and the old bookstore of Sempere and Son.
Juergen
This really is a very sad post. I empathise totally. It is a very universal image in today's world unfortunately. The shop here are dropping like flies at the moment.
This is a shame. I always hate to see bookstores close down. I fear we're going to end up with no independent booksellers left.
Sad to see somewhere like this go.
Ohh no! This is really heartbreaking. We just had a computer shop close in our town. That makes 5 stores within the last 4 months in St Fargeau... Darn economy...
This is sad. I think you have posted photos from here before? This is a lovely tribute, Virginia. Horrible to say, but I think it is happening to too many small, privately owned shops all over.
Sepia is such a good choice here. It suggests a fading picture, a poignant memory.
I hate when that happens! So sad. :-(
This is a for sure. I know it has been a long time...but I still miss Burger Phillips, Blach's, Lovemans, and Pizitz's.
And I heard as The World Turns has been cancelled? Could it be? Maybe the end is near...(sad smile)
This is for sure...a heart breaker. (I meant to say.)
As the World TUrns? Say it isn't so!!! I miss the dept. stores too. I have a post about Pizitz that will make you weep.
V
Your choice of sepia adds to the melancholy of a great picture.
I read a regular newsletter called "Publishers Lunch," put out by Publishers Marketplace. The book business has been in decline for a while, and independent stores have been closing left and right for some time. It has to do with a lot of things: the internet, the financial crisis, etc. Even the big chains are suffering. Books will survive, but by the time this is all over, they and the publishing business may have to take a different form.
In the meantime, I'm still reading as many books as I can. That's what supports the authors and the business.
My Sympathies to you & your former bookstore.
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