BOOKSTORES WE LOVE :: NYC / CHICAGO : QUIMBY’s!!!
a conversation with Steven Svymbersky — facilitated by Hoang Nam Le
with questions developed by Lynne DeSilva-Johnson and Emily Harburg
Quimby’s Chicago — founded in 1991
1854 W. North Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
Website: http://www.quimbys.com/
Quimby’s NYC — founded in 2016
536 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Website: http://www.quimbysnyc.com/
“[Books] show that you don’t remember things you look up from Google because you know you can just look it up again. There’s something about reading that’s more permanent and stays with you longer. And then there’s just the pleasure of holding a book and reading from a book. It’s its own reward.” — Steven Svymbersky, Quimby’s Bookstore
What’s the origin story of this bookstore? When were you founded and by whom?
In the 1985, I started doing zines. It was all about Boston artists, musicians, comics artists. It was called the Quimby Quarterly. During that time, I met a lot of other people who were doing zines, and we started a little organization called The Small Press Alliance. So it was a whole bunch of zines, and we would have poetry readings, helped each other with knowledge about printers and, you know, we supported each other. It was a really cool organization. One of the guys there was putting out a zine called Nightmares of Reason, and he had the idea of starting a small zine store. At that time it was very hard to get stores to take zines and sell them for you. So we thought we start our own store, and it was tiny store in Allston, Massachusetts called the Primal Plunge. So this guy Michael, he did the Primal Plunge for 2 years, and then he just wanted to publish. He didn’t want to do stores anymore, so I took it over. For about a year I did it.
And then it seemed to me that if I expand it beyond zines and start carrying underground comics and more books and things like that, then I may actually make enough money to just do the bookstore and not have to keep doing my regular job. And it also occurred to me that Boston was too small. So I moved to Chicago in 1991, and opened the first Quimby’s in Wicker Park, Chicago. Almost right away, the store was really popular among people who were into zines and underground comics and alternative press. And Chicago is much bigger than Boston, so there were enough people for me to just work in the store and not have to get another job. I was still very poor, but I could eat and pay my rent. That was the beginning of Quimby’s. 1991 in Wicker Park. That store is still there, so it’s 26 years old now.
1997, I decided to move to Amsterdam because my wife and I had a daughter. She was 2.5 years old, and we decided we did not want to raise her in Chicago, especially the neighborhood we were in. It was very violent. We were robbed many times. The last year I was there I was robbed at gunpoint in the store on Christmas Eve, and schools are terrible, so we just didn’t want our daughter to grow up in Chicago. And we had the chance to move to Amsterdam, so we did. I lived there for 19 years, where I worked as a theater technician for an improve comedy theater called Boom Chicago. That was super fun, and a great experience. But when my daughters got older, they moved back to the US. They went to UMass Amherst. So, I decided I wanted to move back to the US.
That was the main reason, but I also felt 19 years in Amsterdam was enough. I also had the dream of living in NYC. I had lived in Boston, Amsterdam, LA, Chicago, and NYC was the last place on my list, the last place I really wanted to live in. I had always loved NYC. I had been coming here since the 80s and visiting. I had many friends here, so I had the idea of moving to NYC and open another Quimby’s. I contacted the people who run Quimby’s now, and told them my idea, and they said it was crazy, but go ahead if I wanted to do it, because even the Quimby’s in Chicago makes just enough money to get by. Nobody’s getting rich doing bookstores these days. So they said, ‘If you want to be poor, then you go ahead and do that.’ I am poor, but I’m surrounded by books all day. I have my very nice music system that I listen to all day. I work everyday, but I’m quite happy doing what I’m doing. I’m thrilled to be selling books again. The big thing is meeting people, meeting artists, writers.
What impact do you think reading and literature have on today’s society? More specifically, how do they help advance or fit into the pursuit of social justice?
I think it’s hugely important. In fact, since Trump was elected, one of the greatest things I have seen is how many people, young people especially, are coming in and asking me what book they should read. I carry a lot of books on social justice. I have a big section on anarchy and very leftist politics, socialism. The left of left, you know. They’re asking me which book they should read, or even so specifically as which Angela Davis’ book they should read, or Bell Hooks, James Baldwin. People are wanting to educate themselves on how these movements started and the people who wrote the most important books about them. And then there are zines. One thing about zines is they foster communities, so people who do zines are in touch with other people who do zines. And they have what are called Zine Fests. I’d say every 2 months in NYC there’s somebody holding a Zine Fest. There’s the Queer Zine Fest, the Feminist Zine Fest, etc. The woman who buys zines for Bluestockings Bookstore, she puts on Zine Fest every summer. Zine is not about just publishing. It’s about community. That’s how you build up these strong organizations that protest and have opinions.
I also think the Internet is great. It’s a great way to communicate. It helps bring people together. But it’s been shown already that reading with a hard copy is something you retain more than something you get online. They show that you don’t remember things you look up from Google because you know you can just look it up again. There’s something about reading that’s more permanent and stays with you longer. And then there’s just the pleasure of holding a book and reading from a book. It’s its own reward. I think we’re dealing with what’s called Screen Fatigue. People are looking at their phones and computers so much of their day that they need to take a break, so books are a nice way to take a break from that and still be entertained and educated. I don’t think we’re ever gonna go back to before computers and the Internet, but I do think books and bookstores are still very important and there are still people who care.
Now that you mention the Internet, let’s talk about that. Not too long ago, we were warned about the Death of Print, though apparently you’re still doing fairly well. What do you think it’s relationship between you and online publishers and resellers. How do you think the relationship will develop in the future?
The Internet is a wonderful thing. I was buying books and running a bookstore from 1991 to 1997 and the Internet was just beginning then. It was not what it is now. I couldn’t order books online. I had to do that by mail or telephone. So being able to order books from distributors and communicate with distributors and zine makers online has made my life much easier. Especially zines. I deal with hundreds of people 1 on 1. Most bookstores don’t carry zines because it’s so much paperwork. That means I have an invoice with 1 or 2 zines on it, and I have hundreds of those, whereas most bookstores work with 1 or 2 distributors and those distributors supply them with everything. I’m dealing 1 on 1 with many people, including a lot of small presses; you know, some distributors don’t take small presses; or even if they do, people are unaware of these small press’ titles or don’t want to be bothered with them. That’s the service I’m committed to providing that most bookstores don’t.
I’m very thankful for the Internet. I do think that we are seeing, for the last 5 to 7 years, many people who are doing blogs and e-zines and websites, wanting to communicate that way, and finding the people who read their work not have the satisfaction of having a hard copy, something to walk around with and show people. There’s pleasure and satisfaction in binding and having something tangible that you can have in your hand and look at it, something you don’t have with online content. Again, these things won’t go away. Some are very popular, like Huffington Post, but the great majority of small presses who work online have no bigger audience than they would if they published hard copies.
Let’s talk about customers. How do you go about helping customers find what they want, and overall, how do you interact with your customers? How has that relationship evolved since you started?
One advantage of my stores is that it’s very small, and it has a very specific thing that I do. Beyond zines, books that I carry are a lot of small presses, or if they are well-known authors, then they are writing about subjects out of the mainstream or in non-traditional ways. I also have a strong emphasis on women and minorities, so there are a lot fewer white male authors in my store. That’s been a conscious thing on my part. The big authors I have right now are Zadie Smith or Ngozi Adichie, bell hooks. I’m also a big fan of Rebecca Solnit. I think she represents a lot of what I like in mainstream press that still expresses alternative ideas.
So, one way I help customers is that I try to read a lot of what I have, so that I can actually recommend books. I certainly have not read everything in the store, but I try to read a bit everyday of what’s in store. I do read most of the zines that come through, or at least get a good idea of what they are about, so I can definitely talk about all the zines that I carry. This last year I’ve been reading not just women authors, but also biographies of important women as well. Everything from Lucy Parsons, who is the Goddess of Anarchy, and who was married to Albert Parsons, one of the haymarket martyrs, to Beatrix Potter, the children’s author. So you know, I just try to read things that I think I want to recommend to my customers. And a lot people do ask me for suggestions when they come in. It’s a small enough place and it’s just me here, so I have a very direct contact with my customers.
As for this particular neighborhood and this literary community, do you feel like it supports you, your bookstore, and what you’re doing here?
Yes. For one thing, I was really lucky to get a landlord who was very supportive of the store’s moving in here. They also own the hardware store on the block, which has been here for a long time. They’re very conscious that they want this block and this area to have a creative and interesting vibe. I also was very lucky that my next-door neighboor is the best comic bookstore in NYC. The Quimby’s in Chicago also sells comics and I do not, because I’m right next to the comic bookstore. But he, the owner, Gabe Fowler, Desert Island, has been a huge supporter of me. He told me that this space opened up and really pushed to help me get in here. So I have not only my nextdoor neighboor who is very supportive and has helped me in many ways, but also a landlord who has also been super supportive.
The community, the neighborhood, yes. The community of publishers and writers and artists has been the outpouring of support, and the enthusiasm has been huge and gratifying.
Let’s look at the other side then. What do you think can be improved? What services or platforms or resources that you would like to have more of or that don’t exist yet?
I have been thinking about how I can bring zines to people more. I have done it a little bit, but I want to do it even more. It’s what I specialize in, and I have more zines than any other store in NYC. I’ve had days where I allowed 3 to 4 zine publishers to set up tables in the store and sell zines directly to people and be able to talk to them, as well as zine people meeting each other. That’s the main thing that I do that other bookstores don’t, which is give small publishers and self-publishers a venue to have their works shown and help each other.
Speaking of events, I was just going to come to that. So the first question on that topic is: What is your favorite event here in the last 12 months?
For Halloween we had a woman give a talk on Victorian creepiness. She had done one earlier in the year on spirit photography. So I have a strong interest in morbid anatomy, natural history, taxidermy, and spirit photography. Just cult stuff. It’s just my personal preference. We have taxidermy in the store, and the design of the store is influenced by the cabinets of curiosity, and the Natural History Museum, and things like that. That was a really cool talk.
I hang photography here. Every 3 months we change the photography show, and the opening receptions for those are some of my favorite. They are more like parties. We’re having one on the 25th of this month. It’s the opening for the show I just put up. The readings are always fun. I like it when there are 3 or 4 different poetry or short stories readers. Upcoming we have Eugene Chadbourne. He’s going to play music in here. We hosted Chris Ware once. He’s a famous cartoonist who designed the logo and all the signs for the store.
Apart from the photography show, do you have any monthly, quarterly, or annual event that you really like?
Once a month, there are two women who host a night called Hometown. Theyre are storytellers, mostly comedians, and they tell stories about their hometown. And then there’s a group called the Fail Better Reading Series that meet in the store twice a month on Sunday. They are scriptwrights. When the store is closed, they sit around in a circle and read aloud someone’s script and make comments. So it’s a writers’ support group who critique and give each other comments. When they read, each person takes a role to make an actual reading of the scripts.
It’s taken me this first year to figure out what events work in the store and what don’t. The kinds of events that don’t work is the ones where I’m losing money. If I set up chairs and have event, it means I’m pretty much closed to regular customers, so if I do it during regular store hours and the event doesn’t make me money, it’s actually losing me money. I stopped doing those, and I try to do more things on Sunday night. Or what works for me is to have authors and readers who have books in the store that I can sell at the reading. I don’t mind if I don’t mind not making money with the Fail Better Reading Series, because I’m closed at that time anyway.
What can publishers and distributors help to support your bookstore?
Well, let me carry your books on consignment. And please just come in and buy books. There are smaller bookstores who have cooperatives or volunteers. I have had people offer to help me. The main things I need help with are finding more events to be hosted here, but I don’t have time to organize the events. I have time to promote it, but to contact all the readers and get everything organized is something I don’t have much time for. So the more people who come to me with events or publishers who bring their authors here, the easier it is for me to keep the store going.
Is there anything else you want to share?
I guess not. Just support your small bookstores. Buy and read books.
Steven Svymbersky is the founder of Quimby’s Bookstore in New York City.
