Over the weekend, Book Culture on 114th and Broadway officially opened up, taking the place of the old Morningside Books, which closed down last summer. Besides a shiny new exterior, the bookstore holds mainly fiction and nonfiction bestsellers, an intimidating rack full of Moleskine notebooks, and pretty much anything else you’d expect from a bookstore. From the impromptu table set up in the middle of the store and the paint bucket holding the door open, it still looks like they’re in moving-in mode.

An employee told Bwog that all academic books sold by Book Culture will remain at their location on 112th, and even though there are plans to open up a downstairs section of the store, the lower level will house mainly Sci-Fi and children’s titles.

Sound familiar? Well, it certainly looks like we have our Morningside Books back. Just with a more avian logo.

A double dose of book news today: first, Senior Tome Correspondent Jon Hill notes that Book Culture looks to have finalized its expansion into the space formerly occupied by Morningside Books. The window sign does not give an expected opening date, but it does suggest that the new location will focus on more popular books, with the 112th street location “dedicated to providing academic and scholarly books.” Seriously, though, a Chick-Fil-A would have been nice.

If you can’t wait for the expansion, or prefer good deals, the local New York Public Library branch on the corner of 113th and Broadway is having a book sale today until 4. Hardcover and paperback titles alike are going for $1, DVDs are $2, and an archaic technology called “VHS tapes” are $1. You’ll encounter such classics as Women Are Not Small Men, What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7?, and On The Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God. There are some legitimate finds here too, if you have the patience to look. And really, for a dollar, who can turn that kind of thing down?

New photos after the jump. Read more…

A few days ago, we reported that the CVS on 96th Street and Amsterdam would be using Flex, partly at least because, according to Student Services, other neighborhood drugstores “have not responded to our invitations to join the program.” However, when Bwog checked in with Duane Reade’s manager, we learned that there may be hope yet for Flex at a closer drugstore. According to the manager, “Students have been coming in and telling me about Flex,” for awhile, and he “sent in the paper work about a year ago.” As for the paperwork going through, “apparently they’re going to be using a lot of Flex next semester so it’ll hopefully be ready by fall.”

In sadder retail news, JAS Mart at 110th and Broadway has shut its doors, according to a sign on said doors, and Morningside Books, after a temporary donor-induced respite, now has signs saying “We are ACTUALLY closed this time.”

- JCD, ECS, and JYH

Turns out Morningside Books isn’t shuttering up so fast after all. 

“Yes, we are still here,” proclaimed a sign posted outside the store, “many of you are wondering ‘what is going on?’ So are we.” Yes, tell us more, Morningside Books, tell us more!

Basically, neighborhood folk have begun to make pledges to the bookshop to help the owner raise the $158,000 he needs to pay rent. An employee informed us that they have raised nearly $60,000 in pledges so far, but that the civil court judge is asking that those pledges be turned into cash. Morningside Books is surving on a “day to day basis” that depends on the sympathy of the judge and the amount of pledges the owner recieves.

As long as the store remains open, most books are half priced and the shop will most likely extend its opening hours to allow for more business and pledge-making. While one neighborhood denizen surveying the bargain bins outside noted that the whole operation “sounds like a bakesale,” you can still do your do-goody part by buying and pledging.

The owner, Peter Soter, finished the note hanging on the window by stating, “the whole affair has only made me more aware of how special a neighborhood we have.” Damn the Man, save the Empire!

                                                                                                                   -ECS

If you’re still in the neighborhood, you have approximate five hours to say goodbye to Morningside Books, which closes tonight at midnight. The New York Times spent some time at the store recently, and yesterday detailed both the store’s lively final days, and its financial struggles, along with a slideshow.

Many neighborhood residents talked about their disappointment over the store’s closure – one resident said, “it’s not like losing a finger. It’s like losing an arm.” Apparently, the store owners received over $60,000 in donations to pay the store’s rent (approximate $9,000 a month, according to the Times).

But the story also notes just how fiscally untenable the store’s position was: $158,000 owed in rent, and the owners finally threw in the proverbial towel in April, after several revenue-increasing options (including opening a coffee shop inside the store) fell through. It’s unclear what the space’s future will be–the owner of Book Culture has entered a proposal to buy it, continuing the fifty-year streak of it being an independent bookstore–but for now, we are just sad it had to end.

A sign posted in the window of Morningside Books this morning informs many a sad, staring pedestrian that their beloved local bookstore will be closing in June. As in, next month. 

If you take the time to read the announcement sign in the window, it will tear your heart out.  There is no way to prepare yourself for the sweet, forlorn, and perfectly phrased lament of a quirky little corner bookstore. “We wanted to be the little bookstore that could,” the sign reads. “We couldn’t.”

In the end, the sign informs us, “it’s about money – we never had enough.” At least the management thanks not only the neighborhood but Columbia as well, so we can all feel a little less guilty about every purchase we ever made at the Columbia Bookstore or at Book Culture.

What will we do without Morningside Books? Where else could you be sure to find a reasonably priced Aeneid only thirty seconds’ walk from your LitHum class? Where will you find the newest addition to your “Books to read for fun, eventually” collection? And where, where, oh where, will we buy our vintage anti-Bush paraphernalia?

Here’s to you, Morningside Books. The last surviving truly independent neighborhood bookstore will be sorely missed.

Look which local bookshop has made New York Magazine‘s recent quasi-advertorial article thing about how to be “independent”: it’s Morningside Books! Says New York:

The Crowd: Caters to the Upper West Side’s erudite collectors (with first editions from Jimmy Breslin, Updike, etc.) as well as cost-averse Columbia students (a wall’s worth of Penguin Classics).

Sample Find: A vintage 24-volume Charles Dickens set.

What’s Selling? Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. 2915 Broadway; 212-222-3350.

In other news, per New York, Sunday dinner is the new Sunday brunch. Act accordingly.

Here at the Bwog, we’re fans of the underdog, the little guy, you know, the little train that could so to speak.  So when it comes to consumerism, corporations and all that jazz, we support locally-owned independent businesses.  As detailed in the current issue of The Blue and White, Morningside Heights unfortunately has succumbed to the fetters of the chain gang in recent years. 

But today, November 22nd is America Unchained Day, a holiday celebrating locally-owned businesses that have remained free from corporate conquest.  No holiday, however, can be properly celebrated without an obligatory sale.  You’ve heard of Memorial Day sales, you’ve heard of Independence Day sales, you’ve heard of Labor Day sales,  but today Book Culture brings you something new -  an America Unchained Day Sale! From now until 8 PM, Book Culture, is hosting a special one day  sale and book event: 10% off everything in the store, excluding text books and periodicals! 

The sale offers an excellent way to get started on your holiday shopping and at the same to make the most of your money.  And the best part is this is conscientious consumerism: you’ll be supporting (and injecting potentially millions more dollars) into the local economy.  Tis the season, after all. 

Don’t forget, you can also embrace the spirit of the holiday at other locally owned Morningside Heights establishments, like Janoff’s, Mondel’s Chocolate and if you’re feeling particularly charitable, the Morningside Bookshop.

McCain and Obama at Columbia, a glorified activities fair.  Thank you Mr. Krebs.

First Kim’s disappears, now Morningside Books?

Local political primaries are today, did you remember (or care)?

Fire alarms are loud (or at least they should be).

Radical: a politics of love and an ethics of compassion (or maybe just crazy).