Unnameable Books

Bookstore located at 600 Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn, NY
Review written and edited by Peter Buller


Independent bookstores today find themselves in an uncomfortable bind. Commercial bookstores offer all the more prolific, popular titles on their spacious and organized shelves. Independent publishers also need buyers of their latest titles, a problematic necessity for bookstores that often stock and sell good amounts of used books. Even worse is the spread and proliferation of Amazon, now promising to deliver books by drone to the doorsteps of potential buyers. With all the competition booksellers face, it's hard to imagine how independent bookstores might survive, much less flourish; yet Unnameable Books accomplishes this all the same. Moreover, Unnameable Books possesses unique qualities which its more profitable rivals have yet to replicate.

The immediate difference between Unnameable Books and its commercial relatives happens before a book even lands in one's hand. Commercial bookstores like Barnes & Noble or Borders offer shelves upon shelves of titles it makes great efforts to endorse. Books on their shelves have posters advertising their name, alongside numerous editions in paperback and hardcover tailored to the taste (or wealth) of customers; but their offers feel superficial, as if made more out of desperation than convenience. In contrast, walking into Unnameable Books feels like entering someone's personal library. Treasured volumes rest comfortably on shelves, some of which double as walls. A small coffee table displays new releases next to tall stacks of those books which cannot fit on shelves. Works are cunningly assorted on the shelves so that any reader may find something of interest; and because of their diverse selection, one would be hard-pressed to leave without satisfaction.

Perhaps the special quality of Unnameable Books is its space. Although the store's aisles feel cramped and narrow (a customer knocked over a stack of books due to congested traffic), the tight space exhumes the pleasant aroma of old books and comfortable reading sanctuaries. On the wall left of the register exists a loving collage of literary memories: consisting of telegrams one author sent to another, as well as newspaper clippings of articles covering events such as Virginia Woolf's suicide. Casually-dressed employees move fluidly around the store with warm manners and eager sociability, in addition to aiding the coordination of events going on in the backyard.* All of this creates a compelling place for readers, and anyone wishing to build their own personal library. More than that, though, Unnameable Books creates a compassionate marketplace for books to breathe as much as their buyers--an achievement Amazon and its rivals have yet to match.


* For that particular evening, April 29, 2015, there was a celebration and reading of Amelia Rosselli's latest chapbook Hospital Series (New Directions, 2015) with translators and poets Deborah Woodard, Giuseppe Leporace, Yvette Siegert, Montana Ray, and Caitie Moore. The event itself demands more attention than a footnote--from Siegert's compelling translations of Alejandra Pizarnik to Moore's piece on death and the internet--but deserves mention all the same.