Greenlight Bookstore Owners On Shelving Philosophy, Joining PLG & Upcoming Grand Opening Party
The long awaited second Greenlight Bookstore opened its doors at 632 Flatbush Avenue (between Fenimore and Hawthorne Streets) in December, and so far both the owners and neighbors we spoke with are thrilled.
“I am elated!” said Flatbush resident Jill Krupnik. “Having a bookstore really adds to a neighborhood especially when it’s such a wonderful indie store like Greenlight. I’m hoping that they’ll have author events at this location.”
Greenlight’s co-owners Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting are just as excited to be in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. “It’s exciting to be a part of a community and to bring books to an area that was previously underserved in that regard,” Fitting said.
Though clearly she doesn’t think of herself as a “pioneer” and shows reverence for joining an already thriving neighborhood. “PLG and its surrounding area really embraces and embodies the word ‘community’, and I’m happy that the bookstore can become a part of such a special community.”
Greenlight Bookstore at 632 Flatbush Avenue is the first independent bookstore to open in Flatbush among a growing number of restaurants and coffee shops that have sprouted up in the last two years.
Bagnulo and Fitting opened their first Greenlight Bookstore in Ft Greene in 2008, after working in the publishing and independent book world for more than 26 years. Over the last eight years, their flagship store has developed a loyal following which they hope to expand to Flatbush Avenue.
“I like to think of [the Ft Greene and PLG locations] as siblings,” said Fitting. “You can tell they are related but they aren’t cookie-cutter versions of each other.”
Though the two branches will vary in layout and design, they will share the same merchandising philosophy — “our tables generally have calm flat rows of books that your eye can read across as you browse,” said Fitting.
The PLG branch will also carry the flagship store’s shelving philosophy, like “co-mingling all fiction regardless of genre, and the same with our nonfiction sections. We don’t shelve any books according to race or gender. History is history, memoir is memoir, and fiction is fiction.”
Check out Greenlight PLG’s grand opening party with music, refreshments, and mystery guests on Saturday, January 7 from 7:30pm to 10pm at 632 Flatbush Avenue.
In the meantime, get ready for your first purchases with Greenlight staff’s 2016 top books in fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, young adult books, and more.
Or, an abbreviated version of the owner’s top 5 books of 2016:
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Underground Airlines by Ben Winters
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Evicted: Poverty & Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
Nonstop Metropolis by Rebecca Solnit & Joshua Jelly-Shapiro