Sad news from the Bronx, N.Y. Paperbacks Plus, which owner Fern Jaffe founded in the Riverdale section in 1970, is closing in four to six weeks.
"I'm really ready to retire," Jaffe told Shelf Awareness. "But I intend to stay involved in the book industry as best I can. I'm not closing my accounts, and I can do off-site bookselling."
Jaffe is open to selling the store, emphasizing that "the sign outside says 'Regretfully we announce the closing of Paperbacks Plus. Everything is for sale, even the store.' "
In a letter, the store thanked customers for making "the bookstore a wonderful and vibrant place, joining us for chats about your favorite books and special events . . . We have celebrated local authors well known and unheralded. As muggles we embraced Harry Potter and his perilous quest, and banded together defiantly to observe Banned Book Week each year. As children you delighted in our costumed story time characters and over time even brought your own children to marvel and listen. Generations have grown up among our shelves and developed a lifelong habit of reading."
Jaffe, who owns the building the store is in, said that she feels bad for her customers--there is no other general independent bookstore in the Bronx. "Riverdale is a lovely community, literate, affluent and quite beautiful," she added.
One of our favorite feisty booksellers--among many!--Jaffe has been deeply involved in the industry. She has served on the boards of the American Booksellers Association and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. She was the first president of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, formed when two smaller regionals merged, and earlier had been president of the New York/New Jersey Booksellers Association. She was the person who announced at its first meeting that NAIBA would be pronounced "nay-buh as in 'good neighba.' "
"I have no regrets," she said. "I've met so many wonderful people in this business. It's been a passionate part of my life."--John Mutter