Posted on 06/23/2008 12:40:24 PM PDT by SmithL
Berkeley -- Cody's Books, the legendary Berkeley bookstore that catered to literati nationwide for more than half a century and was firebombed in the 1980s because of its support of the First Amendment, has closed its doors, the victim of lagging sales.
The bookstore, which in recent years had closed its flagship store on Telegraph Avenue and its branches in San Francisco and on Berkeley's Fourth Street, finally settling in early April in one store on Shattuck Avenue, shuttered that store Friday.
Calling it "a heartbreaking moment," Cody's owner, Hiroshi Kagawa of the Japanese firm IBC Publishing, said in a statement, "unfortunately, my current business is not strong enough or rich enough to support Cody's."
"Cody's is my treasure and more than that, Cody's is a real friend of (the) Berkeley community and will be missed," Kagawa said.
Pat Cody, one of the store's co-founders, said the closing "makes me very sad. We worked so hard and we put so much into it, and it meant a lot to the community. It's a big loss."
The death knell was sounded a few months ago, when the rent on Cody's store on Fourth Street was nearly tripled, according to general manager Mindy Galoob, "so we moved really fast over to Shattuck. We were hopeful it would work out. We had downsized our staff and had a smaller inventory." But sales "were not anywhere near what was needed."
...In February 1989, Cody's was firebombed, and an unexploded pipe bomb was later found inside the store. This all happened shortly after the store had prominently displayed Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" at a time when many in the Muslim world were outraged by Rushdie's novel, and the author had to go into hiding because of threats on his life.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It seems pretty obvious that this was brought about by price-fixing, plain and simple.
It was firebombed because of its support of the first amendment. Yeah. Right.
Cod’s on Telegraph Avenue was a wonderful place. With sputum, gum, residual splashes of vomit coating Telegraph it was a haven for the few intellectuals still found in Berkeley. I recall finding a rare book on Haiti priced at $5. I cashed in and the cashier, among the worldy wise, stated that the book had to be mismarked. He gave me a wink, adding, “You know there are a thousand bargains in this store, if you can only find them! Congratulations.” It is to me a sad event that Cody’s is folding. The Barbarians are indeed at the Gates.
Libs don’t need no stinkin’ books. They got Obama.
The fact of the matter is that bookstores (especially of this type) are dinosaurs. I am sadly watching them go.
Not to mention the competition of a Border's?
"This all happened shortly after the store had prominently displayed Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" at a time when many in the Muslim..."
Those yutes sure support the First Amendment, don't they?
It seems pretty obvious that this was brought about by price-fixing, plain and simple.
We need regulations and protection from these real estate tycoons making windfall PROFITS renting to the little guy. /s
The Barnes and Nobles last year closed on Shattuck yet Pegasus Books is still there across the street. There must be other reasons.
Something that EVERYONE in America can look forward to experiencing. Wonder if it was the same muslim supremacsists who killed that journalist and who destroyed a liquor store in Oakland.
Not to mention all the five fingered discounts that the “liberal” and “free thinking”, anti capitalist were taking.
Who was it, Abbie Hoffman who wrote “Steal This Book”.
Who are the idiots who think that anything is really “free”.
Everything in life has to be paid for in some manner or other. Someone, somewhere is paying for the idiots who think that things are “free”.
I visited Berkeley and Telegraph Ave. several times. I thought it was totally disgusting. The place was lost in a time warp of things that never really existed in the first place. Everything the left believes is a fantasy. They’re not connected to one iota of pragmatic reality.
Amazon and ebay are competition for all of the brick and mortars.
I buy used ones in new condition for a fraction of the cost from Amazon.com or Half.com.
What’s the over/under on whether they support freedom of speech for talk radio, David Horowitz, or Ann Coulter...
Who Cares ? Just asking :)
“profit is theft...... man.”
Self appointed “idealists” and fabulists will be the death of us all.
If I find a book in a bookstore that I wan't and it's not ridiculously over priced, I'll buy it there just to support the bookstore. However, I find myself doing less and less browsing at the local bookstores.
Passive voice here... to whom were they paying rent? The city? Does no one want to say The City of San Francisco pushed Cody's out of business?
The SF Chronicle conveniently left out “by Muslim extremists” eh?
For Al Franken, they’re all for it.
I was thinking the same thing. After Googling I noticed it was supposedly because they displayed Salman Rushdie’s “Satan Verses”.
That means that Muslims bombed Cody’s ... not Americans.
Or they pissed someone else off.
At that time the Muslims were the “bad guys” ... now, to Cody’s and it’s customers, Muslims are the “good guys”.
What makes you think they were extremists?
If I know the book I want, I’ll borrow it from the library or get it from Amazon/Ebay.
But you can’t beat a bookstore for browsing and gift purchases.
I love me a good bookstore.
Kinda reminds me of the old movies where the family ranch/farm/homestead was in danger of being sold out from under the family because they couldn’t pay the mortage.
Fifty years in business and they never tried to own the building?
Sounds like the bookshop in this article sold used books.
I never, never go to Border's or Barnes & Noble because there are very few new books worth reading published in any given year.
Plus, the price of new books is absurd, and the quality of the bindings is pitiful.
There are still a few good used bookshops around me; discovering interesting old books and a bargain on a recently published book is one of my favorite pastimes.
And I never buy softcover books, BTW.
They firebombed a book store because of a book about Islam?
Right. The paper wants to praise the bookstore for fighting for the first amendment, but not mention just who was threatening them.
it would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
For a muslim, that isn’t extreme, is it?
I guess not, huh. Silly me.
I think he's suggesting that they might have been just regular muslims as opposed to those "extreme" types we've been told are the only real threat.
Oops. I see I’m too late.
Cody’s eh? I was saddened when Castro’s book store on University Avenue quit selling used comic books. That was back around ‘73 or so.
"The Republicans, I don't know how many there were in Berkeley, but they would not be coming here," Pat Cody, 82, said Sunday. "Our big success was the community telling us what they wanted and us listening. (The store) reflected the concerns, the thinking of the community."
Maybe that's why they closed: they turned away the Republicans.
More seriously, a bookstore's a bookstore, not a weapon in the political struggle.
If Cody's was as good a book store as people say, a lot of Republicans probably visited it over the years.
yeah it took me a minute :) I’m not always very logical.
I buy plenty of new books. But I don’t buy them at the big brick and mortars.
Many are remaindered within a year of release (don’t ask me about fiction, I don’t read much of it). Half Price Books has many of them within 6-12 months for 30-50% of the retail price UNOPENED. And they have coupons.
I get to the store fronts they have in my city (but I think they have some things online too).
I buy some new books at full retail sometimes but it is a gamble that I may end up finding it for half the price later.
www.bookfinder.com is also good for finding used books.
I was in an independently owned liberal bookstore about a month ago. A group of investors bought it from the people who ran it previously for about 2 decades.
I can’t say that it got more political but maybe that the spirit of the times has made ALL such inventory more “political” (whether it was the slam of candidate GWBush in 2000 or the “Bush’s war” books of today).
Anyway, a lady was asking the owner if her Sunday NY Times was complete. It was so thin these days.
The times are a changing. The paper has cut back and cut back and cut back staff and print (as circulation dropped and advertisers spend their money elsewhere).
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