Book lovers! Radical thinkers! Defenders of small presses and the printed word! Feminists! Anarchists! General malcontents!
Are you worried about the demise of independent bookstores? Left Bank Books is bucking the trend. Located in Seattle-- a top U.S. city for bookworms--in the heart of the famous Pike Place Market-- we have some of the best foot traffic ever. Literally hundreds of people wander into Left Bank every day. We have been thriving since 1973, as a collectively-run, worker controlled, no-boss, labor of love. We carry quality books of all kinds, from fiction to cookbooks. But our main purpose is to spread radical, anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist ideas. We do not represent any political party or group. You can find books, pamphlets and zines here that you won't find anywhere else. And now, with our revived Left Bank Publishing, we are printing materials that would otherwise be out-of-print or non-existent. Any book lover knows, there is nothing like the pleasure of browsing in a hands-on, physical bookstore, where you can make the unexpected discoveries that Amazon and its ilk don't mention.
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We are not asking you to save us. We ask you to help us continue to thrive and to grow in four new directions:
(1) We want to establish an easy-to-use and efficient online ordering system for our customers. This means we need to invest in technology upgrades to computerize our entire inventory, so we can get books and goods to you quickly.
(2) We want to expand our publishing of both reprints and original materials. YOU CAN SEE OUR RECENT PUBLICATIONS IN "GALLERY" ON THIS SITE!
(3) We want to keep our shelves stocked with the best and most interesting books you could hope to find!
(4) We want to continue our long-standing sponsorship of the Books-to-Prisoners Project, which answers thousands of requests from prisoners throughout the U.S. They receive donated books for free, but our postage costs have gotten higher.
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We are setting our goal high-- at $50,000-- because we are in this for the long haul. When Left Bank started in 1973, no one knew if it would survive its first year. But one of the continuing pleasures of this work is that we have had the help of an ongoing stream of volunteers, always more than we've been able to accommodate. As for the "core collective"--who commit to at least two shifts a week at minimum wage-- the low pay and hard work are worth it in order to have control over our store, have decent, cooperative relations with fellow workers, and be able to provide radical literature and goods to all. We have every reason to believe that Left Bank will last long into the future with your generous support. Thank you!
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