Giovanni's Room - Gay Bookstore Shuts Down

Bookstores have been shutting down all over the fucking world.

Rolling Stone didn't seem to care too much...till a GAY bookstore closed it's back door?

More important bookstores than THIS one have closed down, including gay ones. So it was the "oldest gay bookstore" in America? Big deal. We're only talkin' the 70's. And it wasn't as important as A Different Light in San Francisco, and didn't have the visibility of the Oscar Wilde bookstore in NYC. It was the LAST important gay bookstore in America? Well, too ass-fucking bad, but where was Rolling Stone when the FIRST stores were closing?

Rolling Stone, which has seen the magazine physically shrink in size, and which now promotes itself mostly as "come online and see what we have for you to download," has some staffers who write books. Rob Sheffield comes to mind. NOBODY over there thought, before this, to mention that bookstores are in trouble?

Also note that the article doesn't give much of a shit or rectal polyp about gay authors who have no market. OK, a bookstore has closed. How about those who supply bookstores? AUTHORS? The piece doesn't mention what a blow (job) it is for AUTHORS, who love to write, want to work at something they love, and can't. What are the gay authors supposed to do, just give it away on blogs and in forums and as "comments" at Huffington Post? SHOW THEM THE MONEY.

Blah blah woof woof. On and on the piece went. Why? A local Philadelphia bookstore gets this kind of national coverage?? What's the gay-lesbian-transgender community going to do without the bookstore? GO ONLINE, of course. Waddya think, Jann Fag Wenner? You commissioned this piece because you used to hang out and look for cocks hanging out of zippers there?

The "queer" community is ONLINE...so this article is irrelevant. What does the closing of a bookstore mean to "the community?" Nothing. The gays will go to gay charities if they need help, they'll go cruise bars, and they'll be ONLINE.

And you know what's funny? I mean funny in a CREEPY way, like people now mean gay only in a homo way...what's funny is that it was only towards the end that Rolling Stone bothered to mention why the store was shutting its hole:

That's right, Jeff Bozo Bezos, the Amazon clown who started Kindle and destroyed the publishing world...is to blame. This article is about one or two people working in a bookstore who now have to go start a fruit store or a clothing store or something. What about the HUNDREDS of gay authors who don't have this and other stores selling their books?? Gay authors are supposed to use Amazon's eBook company to float books to Amazon for $3.99, which nobody can even find? Rolling Stone doesn't even address this. It's too depressing?

What is the future? I'll be at the BEA convention next week to see less authors, less books, more con artists hawking "self publish an eBook" shit, and...only established authors like Hiaasen and Stine happily signing books and promoting themselves. There will probably be only one or two gay-oriented book companies there, like Cleis, and everyone will nervously be going about their lives, like the Brits during World War II.

So thanks Rolling Stone for a little obit on one fairy tale gone sour, a gay bookstore that had to close down. The store closed because even though gays are notoriously wealthy (this is a stereotype, but it's based in truth) gays are not stupid (another stereotype) and if Amazon or eBay sells a real book for five or ten bucks less than a bookstore, they'll buy mail order and NOT SUPPORT THE ARTIST (or in this case, the store owner). That's human nature (and gays are human).

I'm a bit surprised any gay bookstores close, because you'd think that's where guys go to pick up somebody for quick promiscuous sex, but I guess there are plenty of men's rooms, bars, and INTERNET FORUMS for that. I have no idea, and don't really want to know. And Rolling Stone didn't happen to mention that there's a lot more furtive looks at other customers than browsing in any gay bookstore.

There are fewer and fewer straight bookstores...we all know it. Some of our favorites have gone under, and some of our beloved used bookstores have been shuttered, and many more are just hanging in, waiting for the ax to fall. Fewer and fewer people want books. As Armegeddon approaches, and people crowd into smaller homes because they can't afford more than a few rooms...they'd rather have hard drives full of books than the real thing.

Like gay intercourse, this whole thing is fuckin' shit.