“Business is really great,” BookCourt general manager Zachary Zook told Jacob Osterhout for this profile in the New York Daily News recently when asked how they, a bookseller specializing in, well, books were fairing amidst the onslaught of eBooks.

BookCourt, a book selling institution since it was opened in Brooklyn 1981, is, as any Brooklynite will tell you, a gem of a store. Their events space is expansive and open but doesn’t compromise shelf space, the selection is a good mix of indies and big publishers, and they’ve built a community around books and reading that continues to defy trends.

“In terms of independent book retailers, there is always a crisis,” Zook said to Osterhout about the reason they’re able to buck these trends. “First, it was the computer, then mall stores, then big box chains, then Amazon, and now e-books. And while all those things have certainly affected us, New Yorkers still want to buy a physical book from a family-run store.”

So what makes BookCourt a success where others are struggling? For one thing, the neighborhood has something a lot of other bookstores don’t: a big community of writers who like to do readings. Consider this:

June features close to 20 readings by the likes of Sebastian Junger, Susan Freinkel, Aimee Bender, Nick Flynn, Nick Hedges and Christopher McDougall; kids’ events hosted by Sally Lloyd-Jones, John Rocco and Diane Kredensor, and book-release parties for Carmela Ciuraru and J. Courtney Sullivan.

Nice, but not every independent across the country enjoys this kind of luxury. What else might help a bookstore thrive if they can’t rely on such a distinguished bench of talent for readings?

Literate feet says Zook. ”Being on a street with a lot of foot traffic doesn’t hurt…especially when those feet read a lot of books.”