Austin, Texas: Liberty Books folds
Terry Walker
doors. They will be around until mid-July. There are simply too
many competing bookstores in town. The new BookPeople/Whole Foods
store, in particular, will devote 3x the space for gay/lesbian books
than the entire floor area in Liberty Books. *sigh*
--
- Terry Walker & his three rules of life: 1) Loving always feels good.
2) Being loved always feels weird.
The Mellow Tigger 3) Wanting to be loved always hurts.
mell...@bga.com And you never get all three at once.
Benjamin J. Sloan
>For anyone who doesn't know, Liberty Books is officially closing its
>doors. They will be around until mid-July. There are simply too
>many competing bookstores in town. The new BookPeople/Whole Foods
>store, in particular, will devote 3x the space for gay/lesbian books
>than the entire floor area in Liberty Books. *sigh*
Big sigh. Liberty Books was the best gay bookstore in Texas as far as I
could tell, and a fabulous bookstore in its own right, replete with a fine
selection of new and used books, cards, magazines, soothing music, chairs
in which to sit, friendly pussycats to sit on your lap, and friendlier men
and women behind the counter. For a long time, LB was as close as Austin had
to a gay community center; a place to post messages for roommates, advertise
services, (cruise on a late Saturday afternoon...), etc.
This horrible trend of closing up small businesses and replacing them with
zillion square foot one-stop-shopping megacenters is appalling. The owners
of LB may be tired of runnning their store and perhaps are smart to close
it at its zenith, but I think there is still a place in Austin for such a
smart little store and hope someone else will jump in one day.
Ben
--
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Benjamin J. Sloan /"all of this is the equivalent of coffee-shop \
b...@utig.ig.utexas.edu \ chatter in small towns."-Mike Todd on UseNet /
Greg Havican
: In article <2tms30$p...@giga.bga.com>, Terry Walker <mell...@bga.com> wrote:
: >For anyone who doesn't know, Liberty Books is officially closing its
: >doors. They will be around until mid-July. There are simply too
: >many competing bookstores in town. The new BookPeople/Whole Foods
: >store, in particular, will devote 3x the space for gay/lesbian books
: >than the entire floor area in Liberty Books. *sigh*
: Big sigh. Liberty Books was the best gay bookstore in Texas as far as I
: could tell, and a fabulous bookstore in its own right, replete with a fine
: selection of new and used books, cards, magazines, soothing music, chairs
: in which to sit, friendly pussycats to sit on your lap, and friendlier men
: and women behind the counter. For a long time, LB was as close as Austin had
: to a gay community center; a place to post messages for roommates, advertise
: services, (cruise on a late Saturday afternoon...), etc.
: This horrible trend of closing up small businesses and replacing them with
: zillion square foot one-stop-shopping megacenters is appalling. The owners
: of LB may be tired of runnning their store and perhaps are smart to close
: it at its zenith, but I think there is still a place in Austin for such a
: smart little store and hope someone else will jump in one day.
: Ben
I agree about the trend of small businesses closing. Toby and Kipp just
decided that they couldn't afford to keep it open anymore and (I suspect)
they are moving out of town. Lobo would be an OK replacement if they
would devote a little less floor space to the porno films, and a little
more to books and other literature. Don't plan on it anytime soon
though.
Greg
--
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|Greg Havican | "You! Out of the pool!"--gene police |
|Austin, Texas | If it don't fit, I won't force it; |
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Terry Walker
: in which to sit, friendly pussycats to sit on your lap, and friendlier men
As one of those guys behind the counter, thanks! :)
Greg Havican (topm...@illuminati.io.com) wrote:
: I agree about the trend of small businesses closing.
Same here. I volunteered out there for two years. Just a couple of
hours on weekends, but I still felt like I was doing my small part to
help out the gay community at large. I doubt anyone'll get such warm
fuzzies working for minimum wage as a real job out at BookPeople.
Steve Basile
>For anyone who doesn't know, Liberty Books is officially closing its
>doors. They will be around until mid-July. There are simply too
>many competing bookstores in town. The new BookPeople/Whole Foods
>store, in particular, will devote 3x the space for gay/lesbian books
>than the entire floor area in Liberty Books. *sigh*
I am *so* disappointed. Liberty was the place I visited last August when I
was trying to decide if a queer from NY could possibly live in Austin. The
help, information,and warm feelings I got from the folks at LB told me I
could, and that I might even enjoy it.
I felt so proud to have LB, a bookstore that could stand with pride next to
Lambda Rising in DC, Glad Day in Boston, or A Different Light in The Castro
or NYC. I got the assurance I needed to make Austin my new home.
I wondered when Lobo opened if Austin could support two LBGO stores, but I
naively ignored the threat of the superstore vs. the independents. I am
sorry to lose LB. I hope Lobo can step in to fill the gap.
To the folks at Liberty, thank you for all you have done to make Austin
a better place for queers to live, to learn, to thrive. Thank you for
helping us when we needed it, educating, entertaining, and amusing us.
We will miss you.
basile
--
Stephen Basile |"Certe, Toto, credo nos in
A Cog In The Machine | Kansate non iam adesse..." ____
Tivoli Systems Inc. | --Dorothea \ /
bas...@tivoli.COM | DISCLAIMER: _MY_ thoughts, OUR world. \/
Rod Swift
: >For anyone who doesn't know, Liberty Books is officially closing its
: >doors. They will be around until mid-July. There are simply too
: >many competing bookstores in town. The new BookPeople/Whole Foods
: >store, in particular, will devote 3x the space for gay/lesbian books
: >than the entire floor area in Liberty Books. *sigh*
: Big sigh. Liberty Books was the best gay bookstore in Texas as far as I
: could tell, and a fabulous bookstore in its own right, replete with a fine
: selection of new and used books, cards, magazines, soothing music, chairs
: in which to sit, friendly pussycats to sit on your lap, and friendlier men
: and women behind the counter. For a long time, LB was as close as Austin had
: to a gay community center; a place to post messages for roommates, advertise
: services, (cruise on a late Saturday afternoon...), etc.
For a visitor to Austin, I found Liberty Books to be one of the best
places I visited in my travels. I will miss it certainly. It was a
very comfortable and relaxing place to shop -- cats inclded.
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Terry Walker
came into the store two days ago and bought the store
from Kip and Toby! :)))
A landmark survives.
Greg Havican
: Surprise! Somebody (and Kenneth wouldn't tell me who)
: came into the store two days ago and bought the store
: from Kip and Toby! :)))
: A landmark survives.
Terry, if you find out who, let us know. I'll ask around myself and see
if I can find out.
Jeff Shaevel
>For anyone who doesn't know, Liberty Books is officially closing its
>doors. They will be around until mid-July. There are simply too
>many competing bookstores in town. The new BookPeople/Whole Foods
>store, in particular, will devote 3x the space for gay/lesbian books
>than the entire floor area in Liberty Books. *sigh*
I will sorely miss this store. While I applaud the mainstream
bookstores bringing in more gay and lesbian titles, I wonder if the
titles will go much beyond the "vanilla" material. It will be a
truly sad time if we lose a place to find bold, offbeat, explicit
(although not necessarily pornographic), unusual and specialized
material. I'm not going to bet a lot that "challenging" material will
be found in the mainstream venues.
Of course, I'd love to be wrong about this...
--
===================================================================
Jeff Shaevel :-)-: (comedy/tragedy) Love may be blind,
sha...@guest.apple.com but lust is autistic.
"I'm ambidextrous." - Tony Whitcomb, SHEAR MADNESS (352+ perfs.)
Jeff Shaevel
>I am *so* disappointed. Liberty was the place I visited last August when I
>was trying to decide if a queer from NY could possibly live in Austin.
I'm from NY and I *love* living in Austin.
--Jeff, who has been having **way** too much fun the last few weeks...
:) :) :)
Tom Barrett
>doors.
When I first moved to Austin in November of '92, I choose an apartment
right across the creek from Liberty... which is down the street from
the world's best healthy foods place (Whole Foods).
I saw the notice in the Texas Triangle newspaper the week of my
move... sort of sad, but I agree with the owners that if there are
other alternatives which have popped-up then it's best for them to
close if they no longer see the need to sustain the expense. It's also
hard to loose a tradition, but I think the alternatives will be just a
well as the Austin glb community prides itself as being more
integrated into the mainstream Austin community than any other major
city in the US. I just wish they would have scheduled the closing
closer to the Book People opening.
Tom
--
Tom Barrett email: tdb...@virginia.edu
td...@virginia.edu
*** My opinions only and not necessarily shared by UVa ***
Terry Walker
for the buyout of Liberty Books. Apparently, this company operates
gay bookstores in both Dallas and Houston. So it appears that the
store will be in good hands.
Still dunno, what Kip&Toby are up to next though.