The publishing and bookselling industries are currently in upheaval as new technologies (like print-on-demand) and new paradigms (like Amazon) are radically changing the way books are produced and moved into readers’ hands. And the revolution has just claimed another casualty: New York City’s beloved independent bookstore Coliseum Books.

From Publishers Weekly:

The 32-year-old Coliseum Books in New York City has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans are in place to close the store.

“I don’t see us surviving Chapter 11,” said general manager Richard Urciuoli, who has worked at the store for 25 years. “This location never paid off with the amount of space we have and the book sales we needed to generate.”

Between 1974 and 2002, the store was located slightly north of busy Times Square on Broadway and 57th Street. When a jump in rent forced them to close, the store relocated to a 10,000 sq.-ft. space on 42nd Street, near the New York Public Library.

Even in spite of its famous literary neighbor, which we might assume would bring in plenty of foot traffic interested in books, a destination bookstore could not survive in one of the most literary cities on the planet. Sorry as I am to see one of my own personal favorite bookstores disappear, I think there is a lesson to be found in this news for the future of the book arena, and its one that anyone who reads will recognize:

Readers want more options. We don’t want to be limited to the mere thousands of books that even the widest-ranging bookstore, limited by the simple logistics of shelf space, can carry. We want it all, and we’re going to those places that will give it to us, and shunning those that cannot, no matter how beloved they once were.

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