Pre-Order the Best Books of the Fall!

This fall has more amazing titles coming out than any publishing season in memory! We want you to know you can get these books from Greenlight, and we also want to pass along the buzz about just a few of the upcoming highlights of the season. The list below has some titles to look forward to, and the release date when they'll be available in the store.

When you click to pre-order, be sure to include in your message: 1) how many copies you want to reserve, 2) your first and last name, 3) the best way to contact you (phone number or email address).

You don't need to pre-pay; we'll reserve a copy (or copies) of the book of your choice, and contact you as soon as it's available. Then you can tell us whether you'd like to pick up the book in the store, or have it delivered or shipped. Email Jessica if you have any questions.


September 15: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
The long (long) awaited follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, this book will be the hot ticket at every bookstore in town. You could get it anywhere, but wouldn't you rather get it from your local independent bookstore?
Click here to pre-order The Lost Symbol

September 22: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
A sequel to Atwood's powerful Oryx and Crake but one that can be read independently, Year of the Flood promises more of Atwood's literary imagining of a post-apocalyptic world.
Click here to pre-order The Year of the Flood

September 22: Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro (a Rebecca favorite)
Ishiguro is a master of interpersonal nuance and finely observed details, from Remains of the Day to Never Let Me Go. This collection of short stories is linked by the themes of night and music, and is already inspiring passionate adoration in the author's fans.
Click here to pre-order Nocturnes

September 29: Generosity by Richard Powers (a Jessica favorite)
This highly original -- potentially life-changing -- novel by the National Book Award-winning author of The Echo Maker is essentially about happiness, and the Algerian refugee at its center is a believable saint for our times.
Click here to pre-order Generosity

September 29: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
The Time Traveler's Wife is a big movie this fall, and Niffenegger's success is highly deserved. Grab the newest work by a new beloved author -- lots of buzz on this one!
Click here to pre-order Her Fearful Symmetry

October 6: The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt (a Jessica favorite)
A novel that's part social and artistic history of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, part steamy multi-generational soap opera, part fairy-haunted ode to the power of myths and legends, and all told with a consummate storyteller's skill at characterization and suspense. This one will keep you up night!
Click here to pre-order The Children's Book


October 13: Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem (a Jessica AND Rebecca favorite)
Lethem, one of our favorite local authors, described this book as "a Saul Bellow novel that gets taken over by H. P. Lovecraft," and we like that definition. Set in a New York that's not quite our own, it's epic and funny and clever and sad and odd: Lethem at his finest. Read it and find yourself inhabiting a slightly stranger and more meaningful world.
BONUS: Jonathan Lethem reads from Chronic City at Greenlight on November 5! Reserve your copy now and pick it up on the release date or at the event.
Click here to pre-order Chronic City


And this is just the beginning! So many old favorites and new discoveries await you this fall at Greenlight...

This Saturday: Authors (famous and underage) in Fort Greene Park!

We love our neighborhood. Not only is it home to some of the most exciting writers working -- including Colson Whitehead, Toure, and Nelson George, among many others -- but it's also a place that values education and community. They're putting it all together this weekend with the 5th Annual Fort Greene Park Literary Festival, hosted by the New York Writers Coalition.

The Festival is the culmination of a series of writing workshops for young people, and a chance for them to showcase their work at an event that, as the Fort Greene Park page puts it, "brings several generations of writers together to build on the rich literary traditions of the neighborhoods surrounding beautiful Fort Greene Park." Seriously, this makes me kinda choke up. What could be better or more important?

Starting at 3:00 tomorrow, Saturday August 22, writers ages 7 to 18 will be reading from their work. Around 4:00, the big names will take the stage: Colson, Toure, and Def Poetry Jam alum Staceyann Chinn. Rumor is there will even be free milk and cookies from local restaurant Rice.

Bring a picnic or some cold drinks, and enjoy the best of what Fort Greene has to offer, for free. I'll be there -- hope to see you.

Greenlight blowing up!

As we might have expected, the more we have going on with Greenlight, the less time we have to blog about it. So, apologies for a couple of weeks without an update. Here are some of the highlights of the last couple of weeks, in no particular order:

* Greenlight is featured as one of four startup small businesses on AOL's new "online reality series" The Startup. The first installment is their summary of how we got here (and around lunchtime on Tuesday 8/19 our grinning faces were featured on the top newsfeed on the AOL home page, along with Shania Twain and Celine Dion!) We'll be blogging about issues of interest to the small business world (as opposed to the book world or Brooklyn): how we formed partnerships and found a space, setbacks we experienced, our marketing plan and financing and all of that. Yet another way to follow along with your local indie bookstore -- we're grateful that AOL approached us and looking forward to how the series plays out.

* The third installment in our architect Fred's renovation blog on Brownstoner went up: check it out for some insights on bookshelf design, and some interesting architectural jargon.

* We made some important aesthetic decisions: the exact shade of wood stain on the bookshelves (as noted on Facebook), the design of the cash desk and other architectural elements, the placement of speakers (for ambient music and events). Interior design is no joke, y'all -- making these decisions was often agonizing! But we're so happy with what we ultimately chose -- we think you'll like it.

* We're in the process of interviewing some of the top candidates for Greenlight Bookstore staff. This too, obviously, will be a tough decision -- all the more so because there are so many awesome, qualified book people to choose from! We're hoping to get a team in place in time to help with setting up the store before it opens, so we're on a fast track -- we'll hope to introduce our crackerjack booksellers to you once the roster is confirmed.

* We're working on pulling together our backlist orders: the bulk of the store's inventory of books. After some negotiations with the major wholesalers, we're placing our major initial order with Ingram. This involves looking carefully at around 24,000 lines of an Excel spreadsheet to make our best guess at the core books our store should stock (knowing full well this will begin to change and evolve immediately when the doors open). Some late nights and early mornings have been experienced.

* We've also continued to meet daily with publishers to order the frontlist titles for fall -- so much good stuff coming out this season!

* We ordered computers -- Jessica now has 9 large boxes from CDW sitting in her apartment, awaiting configuration.

* We bought some display tables. One is a former library table; one is an industrial sewing machine table topped with a church door. (That one took two trips.) We love them -- they go with our best of the old / best of the new / funky / welcoming Brooklyn vibe. These are now sitting in Rebecca's living room, and will hopefully soon be joined by others.

* We went to the New York Gift Show on Sunday (as many of our bookselling peers and other retailers will do this week), to find some great greeting cards, journals, kids toys, and other sidelines to round out the bookstore's offerings. We found some great products and beautiful designs, and experienced some surreality as well (watch out for the animatronic life-size orangutan, and stay far away from the realistically breathing stuffed cats.)

* It's been pointed out by some of our fans (hi Mom!) that we haven't posted a picture of the storefront since its total conversion to green. So, see below! You can also catch a glimpse of the small painting in tribute to Robert Fulton, to the left of the storefront above the pink-and-blue entrance to the apartment buildings above, and get a little bit of a feel for the stretch of Fulton Street where we'll be making our home.

Thanks for reading -- we'll keep on keeping you posted!

Early August Updates: Textures, Titles

The second in our architect Fred Tang's construction blog series on Brownstoner went up today! It's got some conceptual renderings of the plans for the space, which are pretty cool to look at.

Advice from experience, though: keep in mind that computer renderings are good for spatial orientation, NOT for getting the "feel" of what the bookstore will be like. They don't, for example, show much of the bookcases, or the display tables, or the textures of wood and paint, or the signage. I think we got a little hung up on this at first while planning, as we were imagining the store having the weightless, textureless feel of virtual reality -- but now that we're seeing the wood and sheetrock and drywall coming in to the store, it's easier to imagine the store as a physical, living place.

And if you're wondering about the status of construction itself, as Fred puts it: "Demolition is now complete and we're pausing for a moment while we wait for the NYC Dept. of Buildings to approve our construction application and grant us a permit." We've gotten quite a ways, and now we just have to sit tight for a bit and wait for the (good, kind, compassionate, tasteful) folks at the DOB to give us their final approval. We're still on track for our hoped-for opening in September, though -- we'll let you know when we can narrow down that window a little bit more.


In the meantime, I've been having almost daily meetings with publisher sales reps to buy the frontlist for the fall. (A bit of bookstore jargon: "backlist" signifies the books you keep on the shelves in the sections, that have been published already and stay in print. "Frontlist" includes all of the new books published this season -- the ones that get most of the media attention, and that you'll display in stacks or face-out until their moment has passed, or they become backlist.) We're doing our best to get in all the good stuff -- what we love and what we think our customers will love. It's a challenge, since we're new to the neighborhood and we don't have a sales history to show us buying patterns, so we're trying a broad range of things so that we have a chance to see what works.

And man oh man, is it a good fall for frontlist! So many amazing new books coming out, the other challenge is not breaking the bank with all the books we'd like to buy. In fact, there are so many big-name authors with books coming out this fall, we'd like to give you a chance to pre-order them. We'll be sending out an email soon with a few of our top picks for the fall, and giving you a chance to reserve one at Greenlight. Sign up for our mailing list, at right, to get the list. Hooray for exciting new books, and your own exciting new bookstore!

Greenlight series on Brownstoner!

Our fab lead architect, Frederick Tang of deFT Projects, has just begun a weekly blog series chronicling the renovation/construction process of Greenlight Bookstore. Thrillingly, the series is being featured on the uber-famous Brooklyn real estate blog Brownstoner. The Brownstoner folks are the force behind the Brooklyn Flea, which has been an exciting addition to the Fort Greene neighborhood, and we're pleased they're interested in our project as well. We'll continue to blog here (and on the New York Times Local blog) about other aspects of the bookstore opening process, but we're leaving it to Fred to talk about the nitty gritty (literally - cough cough) construction itself.

Check out the first Brownstoner post here!

Thanks to Fred and to Jonathan at Brownstoner for making this happen. Even though we're both visiting the space every day to see the construction happening, we're looking forward to hearing it described by a professional!

The Third Place

Every time I pick up the free Edible Brooklyn magazine, I get a little jealous. There are so many people doing cool stuff in Brooklyn, so many that I haven't discovered or wish I had thought of first! But in fact, I think that Brooklyn's vibrant culture of locally produced food and funky independent restaurants is part of what makes an independent bookstore such a good idea here. Brooklynites value the quirky, the independent, the idiosyncratically local -- and they understand the ethical and cultural reasons for valuing locally grown produce as well as locally owned businesses, in order to decrease our environmental impact AND support local, sustainable economies. As indie booksellers, the foodies are our comrades.


The most recent issue of Edible Brooklyn has an article on Red Hook cafe/bar Fort Defiance (pictured above), which talks about the idea of the "third place" -- something Greenlight hopes to embody. As owner St. John Frizell eloquently describes it (referencing Ray Oldenberg's famous book The Great Good Place), it is

"that place between home and work that has existed in every human society, where one can interact with people who aren’t family or coworkers, meet new people, get community news. In early rural America, it might be the feed store; in France, the café; in Germany, the beer garden; in China, the teahouse. Our society is suffering from the lack of good third places."

At Book Expo back in June, I spoke on a panel called "Bookstore as the Third Place: Making Your Store a Community Center Through Innovative Events." I was awed by my fellow panelists: Kelly Justice of The Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia, who puts together entire festivals involving authors, cooks, artisans, and readers together; and Robert Sindelar of (appropriately) Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Washington, who has a massive event space dedicated to events for (and often curated by) his community.

Obviously, a bookstore has incredible potential to become the kind of place Frizell is talking about, and that potential is something we actively pursue. I'm proud to be working toward the same goals as these other incredible independent business owners, foodies and readers both, to help create more of these places for our community in Brooklyn to come together.

(More construction news soon, we promise!)

Counting Down, Ramping Up

Okay, now it's getting serious.

I've left my day job to focus full time on Greenlight Bookstore business -- and the countdown to opening day is beginning!

As we've mentioned elsewhere, we're hoping to have Greenlight Bookstore open for business sometime in September (earlier would be better than later, but given the many factors that have to come together, we're looking at a pretty wide window).

Some days that seems very far away -- and sometimes it seems like tomorrow, as there is a LOT that has to happen between now and then! With that in mind, all kinds of things are now beginning to ramp up -- here's a little bit about where we are right now.

Last week, after lots of bid-sifting and negotiating (thank goodness for having a partner who is a good negotiator!), Rebecca and I signed a contract with Hugo Construction, a general contractor based here in Brooklyn. They're a great firm that has worked with our architects before, and they can do the work within our budget and time frame -- hooray! You may see them at the space this week, bringing in materials and doing the last bits of demolition.

And starting next week, our architect Fred Tang of deFT Projects will be blogging about the construction process on the fantastic Brooklyn real estate blog Brownstoner! So I won't tell you too much about our building plans here -- I'll be linking to Fred's posts where you can get a more in-depth view of the project (and lots of pictures) from a real expert.

In the meantime, we're working on the other side of things: the books we're going to sell! I've made buying appointments for almost every day in August with sales reps from the various publishers we'll be buying from. We're also working on getting a "suggested opening order" from a book distributor -- that's a list of bestselling titles in the areas we cover, which Rebecca and I will look through and edit to determine the books that will be in the store on Day 1. Looking through the lists and catalogs is in some ways the most fun part -- it's certainly what we got into this business to do! I feel especially lucky that we're opening this fall -- everything I hear from booksellers suggests that there are a ton of great books being published this season, so our "New Releases" display is going to be fantastic.

And there are a million and one other things, of course. We've applied for and received our Certificate of Authority to collect sales tax, so we can send our Resale Certificate to vendors and buy wholesale. We've purchased our inventory and point-of-sale software (it's called Booklog), and we're working on finding a good price on the computers we'll need. We're working with the American Booksellers Association to get set up with their website platform, which includes e-commerce (much more on that in a later post!) We're working on creating a logo. A bit later we'll need to sift through the many wonderful folks interested in working for us and hire our staff. And we'll need to get set up with electricity, telecom stuff, trash pickup -- all that stuff.

As I said -- a lot has to happen between now and September. But we're on our way!

Got questions about the store or the startup process? Want to join our growing list of volunteers? Leave a comment here and I'll answer it, or email me at jessica@greenlightbookstore.com and I'll do my best to get back to you. We love the community's involvement in this project, and we want to stay connected with you!

Report from the Preview Party

On Sunday evening, Greenlight Bookstore became a little more a part of Fort Greene when Rebecca and I opened wide the blinds at 686 Fulton Street for the first time. "Wow," said our architect, "it's almost like being outside!" We felt like a part of the street life, as passers-by pointed out our brand-new "Coming Soon!" banner and pressed noses against the window to see inside. And we invited a few members of the community – those who have helped us to get this far – into the space for a look around.

Sunday night was our long-awaited Greenlight Bookstore Preview Party, which was conceived as kind of a big "thank you" – to the Fort Greene Association folks who have helped us connect to the neighborhood, the Community Lenders who have helped us to raise start-up capital, the small business professionals who have worked with us for little or no fee, and the book industry professionals who have given us invaluable guidance. Wine and home-made snacks were served, but the real treat for the attendees was meeting fellow Greenlight supporters, and of course imagining the bookstore that is taking shape.

Our great architects, Frederick Tang of deFT Projects and Jarrett Pelletier, brought along some visuals to help with the imagining, including poster-size mechanical drawings and artistic renderings of the construction plans.
(Don't mind the leftover electrical wiring, which is still draped all over the store!) We also had a mock-up of what the bookshelves will look like, and a couple of 3-D posterboard models of the future store. We gave tour after tour of the 2000 square foot space, until our voices were hoarse from describing the fiction wall, the children's section, the "den" reading area, the cash desk, the author events, and everything else we envision.

In the meantime, the many parts of this community effort got to meet each other. For example, below, from left to right: Fred, Jarrett, Toby Cox (owner of Three Lives Bookstore and a Fort Greene resident), Mike Gross of the Fort Greene Association and the Fort Greene Indie Bookstore Initiative, and Greg Callendar of the Pace Small Business Development Corporation (who helped us secure a small business loan and also lives in the neighborhood).



As the evening wore on, we proposed a toast: to the powerful community that is helping to create Greenlight Bookstore, with the hope that we will be able to give back all that they have given to us, and more.

As you can see by our faces in this photo taken by Mike, Rebecca and I were glowing by the end of the night. I love the way the composition of this shot turned out. Inside the window behind us, you can see the wonderful people who are helping to bring the bookstore together; in the reflection, you can see the beautiful Brooklyn neighborhood we're becoming a part of.

The HarperStudio Interview

HarperStudio is a very cool new imprint of large publisher HarperCollins -- they're working on smart new models for publishing, paying authors, and marketing in the 21st century. They also have a very cool blog, 26th Story. Earlier this week, they asked me for an interview about Greenlight Bookstore.

And here it is!

Thanks to the HarperStudio folks for listening, and to Fort Greene for being the community that makes us not seem crazy.

A Look Inside the Space

By now many of you have seen the lovely exterior of the future Greenlight Bookstore, either in the photos here on the blog or in real life on the corner of Fulton and South Portland in Fort Greene. (Just to clarify for the record: while the entire building is located at 680 Fulton Street, our storefront alone is known as 686 Fulton Street for mailing purposes, so that's how we'll refer to it from here on.) Today, only on the Greenlight Bookstore blog, we're giving you a look inside!


This is the floor plan we originally received from the landlords at IBEC, so you can get a sense of the shape of the space. (The blank rectangle on the right is Marquet, the coffee shop next door.) This drawing shows the setup as it was when the space was occupied by Nationwide Insurance, so as we did, you'll have to imagine it without the conference tables, cubicles, and dividing walls. What can't be imagined away is the central air shaft -- yep, that's a real donut-hole sort of chunk in the middle of the space. Along with the irregular lefthand wall, this makes for something far removed from the usual rectangle of retail space. Minus the airshaft, the space is just over 2000 square feet.

The more Rebecca and I looked at this the more we loved it for its funky-ness. The nooks and crannies, the windows in the middle -- they're all a source of inspiration, and require us to think creatively about how to use this space. Along with our architects, we've been enjoying doing just that. The first step was getting rid of what we didn't need so we had a blank space to work with, and that's just about where we are right now.

We looked at this drawing in various forms for so long that when we finally did get to see the inside, sans cubicle walls, it was a little like deja vu -- it felt like we'd been here before, even though we hadn't.

Here's a panorama shot our architect Fred Tang created, looking out from the back of the space toward the street. It's a composite shot -- hence the ghostly half-figure, which I think is our superintendent, Esdri. You can click for a larger view, though this still doesn't entirely do justice to the feeling of standing in the space. But you can see how expansive the front of the store feels, and those truly amazing windows on Fulton Street. Sneak (imaginary) preview #1: over to the left in this picture is where we plan to place the cash desk.


And here's a similar composite panorama looking in at the shop from the front. (Again, click for a larger view.) You can see that funky airshaft in the middle/right. Sneak (imaginary) preview #2: that nook straight back as far back as you can see is where the kids section will be.

We'll be posting much more detail about our plans, with lots of pictures, in the days to come. Hope you enjoy the peek inside, and share our excitement in imagining -- and observing -- Greenlight Bookstore taking shape in this space!

Today in Fort Greene: Totally Independent Book Fair!

It seems there's something about the corner of Fulton and South Portland that attracts the literary types. On the very stretch of Fort Greene street where Greenlight Bookstore will open this fall, a different kind of literary marketplace is in effect today, June 13: the Totally Independent Book Fair!


You can read more about the TIBF on the New York Times' Local blog. The fair is the brainchild of Nehprii Amenii, a children’s author and illustrator, and aims to give self-published and independently published authors a chance to pool their resources and interact directly with readers and book buyers. Authors bring their own table to set up on the sidewalk (no permit required to sell books on the street in NYC!), and the fair is in effect. It's kind of like when everyone on the block has their stoop sale on the same day -- the excitement generated is more than if any one person had done it on their own, and that means more publicity (and hopefully more sales) for everyone.

Participating authors include Ms. Amenii, erotica author Monica Martinez, poets KL Belvin and Janice Brabaw and graphic novelist Jemir Johnson, as well as MAS Media Studios, Street Fiction writer David L. and Marvelous Harrison. I haven't read or seen any of their work -- but I'm always a fan of independent literary ventures. So take a stroll over to Fulton and South Portland today between 10 and 5, and support another great DIY bookish experience in the neighborhood.

Greenlight announcement in the news!

It's fun to watch the buzz starting about our new location! Here's a bit of who's been talking about Greenlight Bookstore:

Brownstoner got the jump on coverage with a great post about "the little bookstore that could" (and a very interesting and energetic discussion in the comments)

Fort Greene's own New York Times Local blog had a bit (written by yours truly).

Shelf Awareness gave us a number of column inches and quoted from our blog.

The book blog at Gather.com (written by longtime indie publishing stalwart Chris Steib) starts with the great line "Print is dead...long live print!", and predicts that Greenlight "is sure to become a local favorite and a worthwhile trip to Fort Greene."

Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn reported the story -- timely and local-focused as always.

New York Press gave us some ink on its staff blog.

Bookselling This Week (the American Booksellers Association newsletter) also gave us some column space.

Galleycat posted the news, noting that the store will be a block away from one of the popular literary blog's editors (hope to see you at events!)

HTML Giant has the link (and a very interesting comment discussion)

The Village Voice blog has a fierce post that links the announcement to the post-BEA "hint of indie optimism," and ends with the irresistible rallying cry "Let's not fuck this up, Brooklyn."

Moby Lives, the blog of Melville House (a fantastic Brooklyn indie publisher with a storefront in DUMBO), correctly identifies the bookstore as our "baby" -- and points out that our location is the corner of Time Out New York's "best block in New York."

Publishers Marketplace breaks the news (though you'll need a login to read the article).

Shelved @ NYC, a librarian blog, juxtaposes our news with the sadder tidings of Morningside Bookshop closing on the Upper West Side. We're thinking of Peter and co. these days, and hope we can be half the community institution that Morningside has been.

The Brooklyn Paper has a brief article with a picture of our smiling mugs in front of the store space (on an unfortunately rainy June day)

Racked has a great little post focused on the community angle.


I think there will probably be more coming (I did an interview with the Brooklyn Eagle this morning) -- I'll add them here as I come across them. We're trying to keep a record of our press coverage (helps with lenders, publishers, and others we need to impress, we've found), so if you see any pieces we've missed, we've love it if you could link them in the comments!


Update: The Brooklyn Eagle ran the story on Monday, with a wonderful "dreams come true" angle, pointing out that the projected opening date is one year after our launch party at BAM.

The Big Announcement: Greenlight Is Go!

It's the moment we've all been waiting for: the lease is finalized, the contractors are on their way, and we've got an opening date target for Fort Greene's own independent bookstore! At last we can reveal the mystery location:

On June 1, Greenlight Bookstore became the official tenant of 686 Fulton Street, at the corner of South Portland -- right in the heart of Fort Greene.


If you're not already familiar with this corner, we recommend checking it out in Street View on Google Maps to get a sense of the bookstore space in context (it's the former Nationwide Insurance space.) Across the intersection is Habana Outpost, one of the most exciting restaurants in Fort Greene and a neighborhood staple. Around the corner on South Portland is the C train, Lafayette Avenue stop, making us accessible from anywhere in the 5 boroughs. The G train is two blocks northwest on Fulton, and if you continue strolling in that direction for a few blocks more, you'll find yourself at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, one of Brooklyn's finest cultural institutions.

And just look at those beautiful windows!!

The space is about 2000 square feet -- just right for stocking a wide variety of books in many categories, and for hosting great author readings and other events, while still feeling cozy. The funky layout has both wide open spaces and nooks and crannies, perfect for a quiet browse, for reading a picture book with a child, or for chatting with friends and neighbors over a cup of coffee from Marquet, right next door.

We have great landlords who have been invested in the neighborhood for a long time: Samy and Hesky Brahimy of IBEC Building Corporation. We're also working with a local Brooklyn architect team, Jarrett Pelletier and Frederick Tang of deFT Projects, on a plan to make this a beautiful, welcoming space that incorporates the best traditions of bookstores and Brooklyn style, as well as the new energy and ideas that define our borough, and that we hope to bring to bookselling.

If all goes smoothly (and with construction projects being what they are, that's a fairly big if), we hope to be open in September. When we get a little bit closer, we'll start planing a grand opening party that will top even our amazing launch party last September at BAM. In the meantime, we'll be posting regular updates on the store's progress on our blog and Facebook page, and you can feel free to email us with your thoughts and comments.

Thank you for walking with us as we move toward our bookstore dream. We're looking forward to continuing to share this journey with you, and welcoming you into Greenlight Bookstore this fall.


P.S.: The Financials
Among our good news is the fact that we've just been approved for a business loan from the World Trade Center Small Business Recovery Fund, which means that we will definitely have the funding to make Greenlight Bookstore a reality. However, we're still accepting community lenders, since as we've been told by our mentors in bookselling, everything always costs more than you think it will. The additional funds we're able to collect, in increments of $1000 or more, will help to ensure that Greenlight Bookstore is able to stock a wide range of books, sustain a fully functional e-commerce website, and pay a living wage to its bookstore staff. And as a community lender, you'll be entitled to special discounts until your loan is paid off, and lender privileges throughout the life of the store. Details about becoming a community lender can be found here on our website, or you can feel free to email us with any questions. Thanks so much to the many lenders who have gotten on board already -- you are helping to make this happen!

Greenlight at BEA

Rebecca and I will be making the rounds this weekend at Book Expo America, the U.S. book industry's largest trade show. We're looking forward to seeing old friends and talking to new vendors. We've got some big news in the cooker that we'll be officially announcing very soon, but in the meantime we'll be spreading the word one-on-one to friends and colleagues. You can also follow us on Twitter to see what we're up to: @booknerdnyc and @arrbecca. Hope to see you at the show!

Fort Greene Open Book

It's a new project (something we tend to sympathize with): Open Book TV.

Here's the official description:

"Open Book is a new half-hour weekly television program about books and writers focusing on the contemporary and historical literary production in a different spot on the planet each week."

But the really important thing about Open Book?

The first show focuses on that most literary of all spots: Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Not only does the show spotlight the neighborhood's literary history with readings of Walt Whitman, Richard Wright, and Henry Miller, but it features the current resident literary and creative lights: Jennifer Egan, Jeffrey Wright, Carl Hancock Rux, Moustafa Bayoumi, Ishmael Beah, Bill Lee, Darryl Blaine, and Suheir Hammad.

Also featured: Madiba (best South African restaurant I know), M & H deli(Halal), the Walt Whitman Houses, the Navy Yards, Spike Lee's dad's house, and what I'm pretty sure is the inside of the Methodist church on Hanson Place.

Authors I was looking forward to: Egan and Rux (and they didn't disappoint).

Authors whose descriptions and evocations of Brooklyn and Fort Greene unexpectedly choked me up: Bayoumi on a rich and open-eyed multiculturalism, Hammad on a particularly local youth and pride, Wright on an almost mystical but humorous continuity across the centuries.

All of them made me love this neighborhood even more.

Oh come on, just watch it, and relish the literary joy available in our local "spot on the planet"!