And the Gay and Lesbian section was the tiniest, most depressing thing I have ever seen. I was looking for "The Tin Star" by J.L. Langley, but all I could find was sex-related literature and "Prayers for Bobby", which I almost bought but I already know the story behind it. It just drives me crazy that this is all I could find in that section, it's like they think that gay people are only interested in smut. I was just looking for a decent, gay-themed novel because I had never read one before, unless you count "Running with Scissors", which I would recommend to anyone of any orientation. Anyway, I guess I'll just have to order it online, either that or pick it up next time I'm in the city. I just can't believe that the store carries literally hundreds of straight romance novels from A to Z, but absolutely zip of anything that strays from that. Pretty disappointing...
Especially considering the era we live in where people are just buying everything they need from the internet.
You do have a point, but they've been around for more than ten years everywhere on the East Coast, so I expected a little more of them. I remember going to one in South Carolina back in 2003. And thanks for the suggestions, imsoconfused, I'll keep them in mind.
I've seen purely LGBT bookshops around before, I can't speak for whether there are any in New York but it might be worth a Google search
They used to have an LGBT section at my B & N but recently they got rid of it. Just when I found the courage to get a book from that section too!!! I never buy things online as I don't trust it, so that was quite disappointing. I don't think there are any LGBT bookstores around here either... Why do I live in the one part of California without anything like that?
The section was probably so small because those books weren't selling very well. A lot of people buy books online. I would guess that people interested in books about the GSM (gender and sexuality minorities) community would be even more likely to buy them online. Amazon is a great online retailer. They have great protection in case something goes wrong and they actually have decent customer service. I buy pretty much everything (including certain food products) from Amazon. I've been doing it for years and I haven't had a single problem. If you aren't comfortable with that, have you ever thought of buying directly from B & N online? You may be able to ship to store. You may even be able to have something reserved for you and then you pay for it when you pick it up.
I don't find it that surprising that there is no specific section. I tend to find LGBT books scattered in different areas like other books such as fiction, self-help, etc. But there aren't that many books since there isn't many people buying those books, I remember one bookstore I was at had just a shelf for art books. So I guess it really varies from store to store in some cases. Although I am sure you'll find a bunch of LGBT books online and like castle walls said, Amazon is probably your best bet along with big name bookstores.
Oy vey, Barnes and Noble just gets more and more annoying. It's sad that the last book chain isn't doing so well monetarily or qualitatively. And yeah, their GLBT section is so annoying. ---------- Post added 9th Jul 2013 at 05:55 PM ---------- Also try some used bookshops. They have lots. ---------- Post added 9th Jul 2013 at 05:56 PM ---------- There are lots of fabulous young adult LGBT books out there, too.
Sadly, bookstores have really taken a beating in the past decade, and there's fewer and fewer of them around in general. Ordering online is one thing, but it's not as fun to me as physically browsing. We used to have a GLBT bookstore here called Lambda Rising, though that closed some years back. There was a DC location that closed a few years back also. There's still Giovanni's Room, in Philadelphia, though I'm not sure about NYC. One problem with NY is that the pricey real estate seems to be pushing the more unusual, artsy things out, as it becomes an increasingly yuppified Disneyland. I still love New York, though it seems to have lost a lot of it's character. Small, quirky businesses are being increasingly run out by the same chains you can find anywhere. Boring. Here's a story on gay bookstores around the world.
I could be wrong, but I thought that I read somewhere that it's under new management? Again, I can't be sure on this, but I live in Indiana. It's already pretty conservative, and I know years ago our B&N had a pretty nice LGBT section. It was only one whole shelf but it was still really nice to have that. Now, I don't think there is one. Anymore, I really can't find the section in any of the stores I'm in. I was under the impression it was gotten rid of.. along with the addition of adding more Religious books/etc. It could just be in my head...but who knows.
