The Barnes and Noble on South Maryland Parkway shut its doors earlier this year. That means that every major bookstore that was open in Las Vegas when I was in college, a mere fifteen years ago, is now closed.
The Borders on Sahara and Decatur, where I worked my freshman year, closed several years ago, just as the recession was starting. The space is still vacant.
When I was in high school, there was a little Barnes and Noble affiliate called Bookstar just down the street from it. They closed before I even graduated. It’s a linen shop now.
The Borders on Lake Mead and Rainbow opened while I was in college. They closed last year.
There used to be two bookstores in the Meadows Mall. Both are long since closed, that mall now bereft of books.
There are just two Barnes and Noble stores left to service all of Las Vegas. Both are in the same part of town: out west in the Summerlin area.
There is not, nor has there even been, a major bookstore in the northernmost part of the city, where I live. I remember a little independent one in the strip mall at Rancho and Craig, but that was as close as it got, and they closed before any of these others. A raggedy used book store on Ann closed a few years ago. Other than the Barnes and Noble I started off writing about, I don’t think the easternmost part of town has ever had a big bookstore, either.
There are, however, still several fine used book stores in Las Vegas. Thank goodness for that.
