November 14, 2008 / Brooklyn news / Not Just Nets / Cobble Hill

One for the books! BookCourt expansion complete

By Mike McLaughlin

for The Brooklyn Paper

The city is going through one of the worst retail nosedives in decades, but you wouldn’t notice from the inside the beloved Court Street shop, BookCourt, where the literati continue their love affair with the printed word in the store’s new wing.

The 27-year-old bookseller roughly doubled its size when construction finished a month ago on a rear, sun-splashed addition. The new space freed up clutter in the front of the business and provided a larger area for readings and potentially book club meetings.

Orchestra of St Lukes

“It gives us much more flexibility and people seem to love it,” said co-owner Mary Gannett.

And while other bookstores, many of them secondhand shops, have folded, this Cobble Hill juggernaut aspires to build a cafe and a backyard garden with wireless Internet service.

That’s possible, because the tough times that have befallen their competitors — and the fact that BookCourt owns its storefront, rather rents it — have not hit the growing store.

“We’re pretty much at the same level as last year,” said Zack Zoot, who manages the store owned by his mother, Gannett.

BoroDeal

BookCourt [163 Court St., between Pacific and Dean streets, (718) 875-3677].

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