A Heartfelt Farewell to The Mystery Bookstore
Today is the final day of business for The Mystery Bookstore in Los Angeles. If you are in that area, be sure to stop in to their farewell party tonight.
Since I can't be there, I wanted to send my own farewell wishes and sincere thanks to the staff. I had a slew of friends who agreed to help me and this is what we put together. I hope you'll take a few minutes to enjoy it and then leave your own farewell in the comments. This post is a tribute to a wonderful store, a wonderful staff and the end of an era in crime fiction.
Thank you Mystery Bookstore! We Love You!
25 comments:
Lovely tribute, Jen. I will be at the party tonight, though a big part of me does not want to go. I don't want to witness the last breath of the bookstore I call home. But neither do I want to miss giving my thanks in person to a store and staff that has made being a reader and a writer so enjoyable and fun.
Jen,
This tribute is perfect, thanks for taking time to the compile photos, thoughts, and memories. I know Linda and Bobby appreciate it.
Best,
Dana
Wow, Jen! Just wow! It was beautiful. Thank you. It nearly brought me to tears.
Beautiful work, Jen.
Linda, Bobby, we're going to miss you in the hugest way. MBS was everybody's favorite tour stop. You made everyone feel like they'd just come home.
Cheers to you both, and to the Mystery Bookstore!
-Marcus
Wonderful. Thank you, Jen!
Makes me teary-eyed. You all are still family. Thanks to all the authors and customers who helped make the store a vital resource. We'll see you down the road apiece.
Great, great tribute to THE MYSTERY BOOKSTORE, Jen. As Sue Ann said, I'll be there tonight but it is still hard to believe that it will be for the last time. Many thanks, Jen.
Sob!
Lovely, Jen, and bittersweet.
A fitting tribute to the heart of the So Cal mystery community.
Wonderful tribute to a wonderful place.
Very beautiful and heartfelt, Jen. Will be there tonight with Brett and Eric and Rob and God only knows how many others. Just went to Ed Wright's signing there, and Bobby said he'd personally sold 700 of Ed's first book. It there had been 50 bookstores as caring at this one, Ed would be the star he deserves to be, rather than one of the best relatively unsung heroes of the genre.
So sorry to see them go.
Well done. So great to see the memories and hear what TMB meant to so many authors. I'll be there tonight for the final goodbye so this was a great start to a day of tribute.
I shall be there too. Its too bad that economics allow a place like the Mystery Bookstore to close. If Borders can get a $550 million bailout loan, why can't the independents do the same? I'm a little angry this morning.
The video's pitch perfect, Jen. Well done!
Those of us unable to attend are counting on those of you in L.A. to help give The Mystery Bookstore crew a proper sendoff. Celebrate the sense of community and what a bookstore should be that TMB shared with all of us!
To Linda, Bobby and crew - you set the standard by which I compare other bookstores. You're simply the best. The great pre-party and THE booth to visit at the L.A. Times Festival of Books were definitely highlights from my trip to L.A. last year! Thank you.
Cheers and hugs from a reader and fan in Nashville!
Amazing, Jen! I'll be there tonight. I so wish you could be there, too. Thanks for putting this together. We're going to miss the place very much.
Stephen Jay Schwartz
You're a peach to do this, Jen. I can tell how much thought and work you put into it. I'll miss the hell out of that place. Love to Linda, Bobby, et al!
Wonderfully done, Jen. I'll be at the party tonight...and remembering hundreds of others I've been to there over the last two decades.
Lee
Thank you, Jen, for putting this together! The closing of a wonderful home for mystery writers and readers should not pass unnoticed. The Mystery Bookstore was a wonderful place to visit. I am so very grateful that I managed to pass through their doors.
I'll miss you, Bobby and Linda!
Jen, this is beautiful. Bobby and Linda and the gang: I can't imagine the world without this nurturing, magical place. I'm still reeling.
What a great video -- for a great store.
What a great great tribute piece. Thank you for giving me trip down memory lane; in a few minutes you hit every high note about a store I loved to visit whenever I was in LA. The LA Times Festival of Books will not be the same for me without my annual visit to both the store and their booth throughout that weekend. I met so many authors through Linda and Bobby. Thank you!
Things come and go, and the world changes, and mostly we accept it, but sometimes it leaves us with the bitter taste of ashes in our mouths.
I really liked this store and though I'm not an author or an insider, it still felt like a welcome haven. It could easily have felt otherwise. Sometimes the need for such a haven is great and the havens are few.
Thanks to the store staff, management and ownership. Cheers.
There was a party at 1036 Broxton the other night. It was a terrific blowout, quite possibly the best gathering ever of people who write, sell, and read mystery novels. But the next morning we all woke up knowing something was missing and could not be replaced.
Thank you, Jen, for the tribute. Thank you, Bobby, Linda, and the entire exceptional staff who over the years made me and countless other writers feel so welcome there. The store may be gone, but the community it nurtured is still around, and we’re all part of it.
Fantastic! Oh. eloquent, nostalgic, and quite quite perfect...
My only wish--is that you didn't have to do it.
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