Progressive Wednesday

Reviving Niagara: Buy

June 13th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

Buy:

For 80 years, The Book Corner has called Niagara Falls home. Since it’s inception in 1927, the store has moved twice, but has remained in the Falls. It’s the largest independent bookstore in Niagara Falls (and all of Western New York for that matter), and at 10,000 square feet it’s one of the biggest privately-owned bookstores where we’ve ever dropped a dollar. I’ve been in more bookstores than I can count, and I’ve never seen anything quite like this. The store has a googolplex of used books for sale (I once snagged a first-edition of Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas at a price far under its “value”), and they feature one of the most complete collections of books about Niagara Falls that you’ll ever see.

Now, unless you live in Western New York, this Wednesday we’re not going to recommend you hop on an airbus to Buffalo just to check this place out. Though, if you’re a book-lover like me and happen to be in the area, it’s worth more than a look-see.

But here’s the deal (or the “dealio,” if you prefer): The Book Corner is one of the few businesses surviving on Main Street in Niagara Falls, and Main Street in Niagara Falls is to roads as Bob Hope is to comedians: it’s dead. Okay, that’s hyperbole. It’s dying. No, that’s not right either. It’s working toward a serious reincarnation, and The Book Corner is a ray of hope.

So, what we’re asking you to do is plain as paper and quite simple: please order your books from The Book Corner. Find them however you want online — Amazon, Powells, Barnes and Noble, Borders — but place your order through The Book Corner. They’ll even gift-wrap the book or books for nothing, nada, zilch — in other words, for free, my peeps. If you want, you can also order books they have in stock through AbeBooks and get free shipping.

And if you’re trying to find an out-of-print book or a book whose title is fuzzy, turn to Pete and Jeff Morrow. Skilled as librarians, they’ll find your tome of choice. I’ve placed several orders through the shop for poetry books that were either out-of-print or printed by an obscure press, and they’ve dug and hunted and found me what I was after.

But don’t just take our word for it, you can read some reviews by clicking here or here. Or you can take the New York Times’ word for it – they describe The Book Corner as “a beacon of light in the pall of the blight.” And lest we forget, you can take a tour of this fantastic store by playing the video below. So much to read, so little time…