Around Indies

Kibbitznest’s Books, Brews & Blarney to Open in Chicago

Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood will welcome Kibbitznest’s Books, Brews & Blarney in September, DNAinfo Chicago reported. The new bookstore and café, owned by Anne Kostiner, will offer drip coffee, food, and beer and wine. To promote face-to-face interaction, laptops will not be allowed in the store, smartphone use will be discouraged, and no wireless Internet will be provided.

“We have to create the culture because if we expect people to just change on their own without anyone taking action, it might not happen,” Kostiner said. “Our responsibility is to extend ourselves beyond the electronic support systems that we have that are so easy. It’s important, because one of the basic aspects of being a human being is to communicate with each other.”

Customers will instead be able to purchase used books, play board games, and listen to records or the radio. “The idea is to spend some time here. It’s not a place to pick up coffee and go,” said Kostiner. “There’s plenty of places like that.”

Kostiner also owns the nonprofit Kibbitznest (kibbitz being the Yiddish word for “to chat”), through which educational and arts-related events will be coordinated for the store.

Taos Book Gallery Celebrates Grand Opening in New Mexico

A grand opening celebration will be held for the Taos Book Gallery, a new bookstore showcasing both books and artwork, on Saturday, June 18, reported Taos News. Owners Mary Jane and Michael Butler opened the Taos, New Mexico, bookstore earlier this year, but the two began their foray into bookselling in 1977 at the Avalanche Bookstore in Durango.

At Saturday’s grand opening event, Mike Butler will discuss and sign copies of his new book, High Road to Taos (his fifth book with Arcadia Publishing), and Mary Jane Butler will talk with visitors about her figurative sculptures, which are on display in the store.

On the shelves, customers will find new books on Taos and greater New Mexico, Western art and history, and signed first editions, as well as used books. “A bookstore that carries only new books just can’t make it because so many new books are purchased digitally,” Mike Butler said. “People still love to come into bookstores, though, and find that special treasure. That’s why we’re here. It’s always great to get the physical book into someone’s hands.”

Christopher’s Books Marks 25 Years

Christopher’s Books, located in the Protrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco since 1991, is celebrating its 25th anniversary in July, reported Hoodline.

“It’s really a community space that happens to be a bookstore,” said Tee Minot, who began working at Christopher’s in 1992 and has owned the store since 1996. Bookstore founder Christopher Ellison continues to take shifts at the store on occasion.

“In the beginning, I kept trying to figure out how I could compete with Amazon,” said Minot. “However, I realized that I didn’t want to be a chain, but a small, well-curated space where people could have a face-to-face relationship to their bookseller.”

Christopher’s features a robust children’s book section filled with books and toys, as well as ample fiction titles and cookbooks for adults. The shop regularly hosts book drives and other charitable events to benefit various organizations in the area, including the Nancy and Stephen Grand Family House, which provides housing for families of those hospitalized with life-threatening illnesses.

Radical Bookselling to Document Life of Moe’s Books Founder

Doris Moskowitz, the daughter of the late Moe Moskowitz, founder of Berkeley, California’s Moe’s Books, is looking to commemorate her father’s life with a book of photos and stories, Radical Bookselling: A Life of Moe Moskowitz.

The image-rich book will detail Moskowitz’s life and how, in 1959, he came to open a bookstore, which was the precursor to the current store, Berkeleyside reported.

A Kickstarter page established to raise publishing funds notes, “Moe’s Books has published and produced many things, but never a book about its founder. In our 55 years, we have supported many authors, dreamers, entrepreneurs, poets and musicians.”