Ezra Goldstein, co-owner of Community Bookstore and Terrace Books in Brooklyn, N.Y., will retire from bookselling on February 18. Stephanie Valdez, with whom he has owned and operated Community Bookstore for nearly 12 years and Terrace Books for close to 10, will assume full responsibility for the business going forward.
"I am retiring because I'm old enough to do so (73), wise enough to get out while I have my wits about me, still fit enough to keep up with my hyper-active, outdoorsy wife and offspring, and, cruel as it may sound, eager to spend more time with my new grandson than with my bookstore colleagues, as much as I love them all," Goldstein wrote in a message to customers and community members announcing his retirement.
He said he was "immensely proud" of all that he and Valdez have accomplished. Though he and Valdez did not officially own the bookstore until about 2011, they had been deeply involved with the store since 2007. At that time, closure was a very real possibility for the bookstore, a Park Slope institution dating back to 1971. Over the next few years they "brought Community Bookstore out of debt and into the black," and in 2013 they did the same with Terrace Books in Windsor Terrace, previously known as Babbo's Books.
Goldstein added that he still very much loves the stores and their staff, and hopes "Stephanie will have me back to work the occasional shift, just for the pleasure of it." He noted that as much as things have changed since they first bought the store, two things have remained constant: the bookstores' "always thoughtful, interesting, well-read, likable, adaptive and resourceful" staff, and his partnership with Valdez.
"Partnerships can be fraught, but one more thing I can say with pride is that we've been a great team," he continued. "I will miss working with her."
He praised the stores' customers, thanking them "not just for their support through everything," but also for "being so darned smart and such good readers." He looks forward to "making the transition to becoming one of those customers myself."
Valdez said she was "both excited for him to spend time with his grandson and sad that our work partnership of over a decade would be over." Together they "helped Community Bookstore reach its 50th year in business, a rare milestone for small businesses in this era."
She continued: "Ezra's great legacy will be the daily attention he paid to the store as he nursed it back to health from a particularly rough patch. His steadfast care made incremental progress snowball until it looked like overnight success. Thank you for everything, Ezra."