Sadly Vertigo Books, College Park, Md., is closing in two weeks, the store announced. In an e-mail and on the store website, owners Todd Stewart and Bridget Warren said there were many reasons for closing "but basically, not enough people buy books here.
"We have many loyal customers, just not enough of them, and our cloning experiments have not yielded satisfactory results. And way too many people (not you, but someone you know) are buying their books at Amazon. We'll spare you the inside baseball stuff about the near monopolistic force Amazon has become in the industry."
The store made the case for supporting local businesses and noted that because "one of us grew up Irish Catholic," the store is holding a wake on Saturday, April 18, beginning at 5 p.m. "Bring a dish or something to drink and join us for a free form wake and potluck . . . If you shopped, read or worked here, we want to see you."
They asked customers and people in the industry to stay in touch via staff@vertigo-books.com. "We were never good about photographing and documenting the store's activities. If you have event calendars, photos or memorabilia to share, please send them on. A computer with archived materials was stolen last summer, so your contributions would be much appreciated."
Vertigo was founded nearly 18 years ago in Washington, D.C., and moved to College Park in 2000. The store has always specialized in literature, politics, children's and African-American literature.
The store will be missed. As the Washingon City Paper wrote in a story with the headline "This Sucks: Vertigo Books Is Closing," Vertigo had "an awesome staff, offered a great selection, and produced interesting readings each month from well-known authors and should-be-well-known authors. They championed African-American literature in particular and had close ties with the DC-area community. They defined the independent bookstore."