‘Requiem for Black Oak Books’ … today at Beyond Chron

Yet another venerable independent bookstore, Berkeley’s Black Oak Books, has closed its doors. This one hits home: in 2007 Black Oak kindly hosted the launch reading for my first book, Wrestling Babylon.

The demise of Black Oak, like that two years ago of another Berkeley institution, Cody’s Books, is sad. Yet I confess that I can’t bring myself to join the chorus of ritual condemnation of the new hegemony of Amazon.com. The reason is that, on balance, I believe online retailing is a very good thing for the vitality of diverse literary voices. My experience with Wrestling Babylon shows why.

Read the full text:

“Requiem for Black Oak Books,” Beyond Chron, http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Requiem_for_Black_Oak_Books_7010.html