I just spoke with Tom Simon, the owner of Seventh Avenue Books, who wants everyone to know that there will be "an agressive sale" at the bookstore starting tomorrow, August 24th.

The store, which is located on Seventh Avenue between 3rd and 2nd Streets in Park Slope, will be closing at the end of the month. 

He also told me that the store was never sold but that a vegan restaurant is going in there. Here’s the story from Tom Simon:

After a pleasant six years running 7th Ave. Books in Park Slope, I ‘m
closing shop to spend more time with my kids and work on some projects
I’ve not had time to focus on.

In these six years, we’ve sold over a half million used books,
almost all of which came from folks in Park Slope, and having been a
bookseller for some thirty years, I must say that the quality of these
books was uncommonly high. So many came to us from local authors,
academics, and wildly ecletic readers, making it possible for us to
become what bookstores aspire to be: a collection of books which
reflects and satisfies the community it serves.

It’s kind of funny how over the last few weeks I’ve begun to feel an
odd sort of guilt, as literally hundreds of customers have told me how
much they’ll miss our presence, what a loss it is for them. I feel like
I’ve let down more readers than I ever realized before deciding to move
on. Yet it’s gratifying to know how much pleasure we’ve provided.

Our last day will be August 31. Two weeks ago we began our "moving on"
sale. Despite the huge number of books we’ve since sold, I’m astonished
by how many really fine books customers continue to find and buy. Hat’s
off to the readers of Park Slope.

You might find this interesting. For close to fifteen years, I held executive positions at both Waldenbooks and Barnesandnoble.com.
No doubt I contributed to the demise of many an independent bookseller.
While my closing is not from lack of profit as used books are a
different market from new books, from what I have pieced together, the
four independent Park Slope book stores combined gross sales are only
25% of our local Barnes & Noble’s. Pretty astonishing and to many disheartening. And I helped this happen, not just in Park Slope, but all across the country.

Over the next ten days, I think we’ll give the public one of the finest
book sales held in years. Unsold books, most of which will be fine
selections, will be donated to schools, hospitals, prisons and others.
Somehow, I find this the most gratifying part of our closing.

If you’d like any more info on this bit of news, or on bookselling in general, you can reach me at (917) 929 1653, or tomsimon123@aol.com.

Many thanks for your time.

Best,

Thomas George Simon, Prop.

P.S. I neglected to mention that our custom made book cases are for sale at
very nice prices. more importantly, so is our very large fish tank: I’m
not looking for the cash so much as a good home for it.