Confessions of a Mad Librarian

It is by no means the most catastrophic news, but this is sad for more than a few people. From the San Jose Mercury News:

Kepler's, the storied Menlo Park independent bookstore that drew loyal customers from across the Bay Area, abruptly closed Wednesday, leaving book devotees mourning another casualty of the battle with the major book chains.

For half a century, Kepler's kept its place in a tiny coterie of notable Bay Area bookstores where browsing was encouraged, where politics and poetry were cool, and where readers could depend on well-read employees for smart recommendations. Jerry Garcia hung out at the store in the 1960s before the Grateful Dead. So did Joan Baez. And for decades, book lovers could meet Jimmy Carter, Nick Hornby or Kazuo Ishiguro without going to a big city.

To put it in some perspective, there's only the two locations of Books Inc. as major, independent bookstores [edited from earlier]* (the Stanford bookstore is run by the college bookstore firm Follett) in Silicon Valley. There's a bunch of small stores that either have niche markets (mysteries, technical books) or have most of their stock in used books.

Kepler's was a good store. And it was a major anchor to cultural life in the mid-Peninsula area. I was at the 50th anniversary celebration for Kepler's recently and there was a very large, very appreciative crowd spanning 3 generations and more. It was a Bay Area institution.

Also from the article:

The steady stream of visitors who approached the locked doors on Wednesday included Menlo Park public librarian Cathy Smith. "It breaks my heart," she said. She and the other city librarians came to Kepler's on their lunch break. And, of course, it's where she bought books. "I don't know where to go," she said. "I can't imagine where to go."

What Ms. Smith said. Bye, Kepler's. Thanks for all of the books.

* Thanks to Walt Crawford to pointing out the independent status of Books Inc.