Kepler's, Stages 2 and 3

The stories are coming out of the woodwork now, from the NYTimes:

The reaction of Steven Fields, a longtime customer, was typical on Wednesday. After having lunch at Cafe Borrone next door, he told his 11-year-old daughter, Hanna, that Kepler's was closed. She immediately burst into tears.

"What am I going to do?" she said. "Where am I going to go? It was the best place."

to reminiscences by local authors and the hastily assembled web site where I got the above pictures. The effort to renegotiate the dotcom-bloated rent and the search for local investors are underway. Still, it's got to be a business, not a charity.

Here's my own contribution to Kepler's memorabilia. When Dara was in bed rest with Garrett, flat on her back for months, I thought I'd try to find a copy of Flatland. The fantasy story of a two dimensional land, I remembered reading it in 8th grade as part of my geometry class. This was before the days of Amazon and Internet search engines. I had no idea how to find it. I went into Kepler's and said, "I'm looking for a book called Flatland," and the random clerk I spoke to said, "Oh, sure. It's by Abbott. Over here." As a thoughtful gift, it was a failure. But as a metaphor for the kind of thing that separated Kepler's from other bookstores, it was a standout.