Requiem for a bookstore

I was saddened to learn that the Harvard Square branch of the Globe Corner Bookstore shuttered its doors earlier this month, leaving us map and travel guidebook junkies seriously in the lurch. It occurred to me that they might have some interesting books about hiking around the Cape Ann with better trail maps than those I've been able to find online, so yesterday I cruised by on my lunch break only to discover that they were closed for business. Not cool! So the mass extinction of small bookstores in Harvard Square continues apace (Wordsworth Books went under earlier in the year) -- when all is said and done, it's likely that only the Barnes and Noble and the Harvard Book Store will be left standing. And as we know all too well, "There can be only one."

But seriously, I had a real fondness for the Globe Corner Bookstores. I'd even applied to work at the one that used to be on Washington Street in downtown Boston (before it too was destroyed by the Borders across the road). I remember that their application was pretty funky, asking potential employees not only to fess up about their past criminal records but to locate random small and not particularly well-known countries on a blank map. I'd like to say it was a felony or two that kept me from getting a call back for an interview, but odds are it was the fact that I probably mixed up Venezuela with Vanuatu.

The good news is that while the Globe folks look for cheaper digs in the Harvard Square area, they will still take phone orders for travel books. Check out their website for contact infomation.