Yesterday Boldtype ran a round up of the 10 best bookstores in the US. I hungrily searched the list for familiar and/or local names. The intro blurb lamented the demise of the bookstore and the book business.

“Bookstores are dying. They’re dying because of jerks who are too cheap to buy a hardcover, or even a paperback, and too lazy to get a library card. Guys like the one from Julie Bosman‘s NY Times article, and this guy, and this guy. Even before we break into the eBooks discussion, think about everything else that reading is supposed to contend with these days — movies, video games, television, and the internet.”

It was nice to see their list, which included the Strand Bookstore right here in NYC, Powells in Portland, Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles and City Lights in San Francisco. It got me to thinking of the all the great bookstores that no longer exist in NYC. So here’s my roundup of the ghosts of bookstores past…

1. New Yorker Bookstore (89th Street and Broadway).

2. Books & Co. (Madison Avenue and 75th Street next door to the Whitney Museum).

3. Endicott Booksellers (Columbus Avenue near 81st Street).

4. Booklink (Seventh Avenue near 9th Street in Park Slope and later Seventh Avenue near Union Street).

5. 8th Street Bookstore (8th Street between 6th and 5th Avenues).

6. Spring Street Bookstore (Spring Street near West Broadway).

7. Coliseum Books (57th Street and Broadway).

8. Gotham Bookmart (47th Street between 6th & 5th Avenues).

9. Doubleday Bookstore (Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets).

10. Scribner’s Bookstore (Fifth Avenue near 48th Street). Photo above courtesy of Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.

11. Different Light Bookstore (19th Street between 6th and 5th Avenues).