Labyrinth Gets a Summer Makeover

If you’re headed to Labyrinth to purchase books this week, get ready for a few surprises. The store as all at Columbia have known it for the past 10 years has undergone a major makeover.

Over the summer, the former Labyrinth bookstore broke from its parent company of Great Jones Books Inc.., which was founded by partners Chris Doeblin and Cliff Simms. Among the changes are new additions to the staff, different book shelves and carpeting, and of course, the new name Book Culture. Simms opened a Labyrinth Books in New Haven, Conn. this past year. The summer saw an amicable split between the two partners in which Doeblin kept the store by Columbia and founded an independent corporation with the new name. His former partner, in the meantime, is in the process of opening a second store in Princeton, N.J.

“They had a Web site with the store name and a catalog business so it made sense for them to keep the name, there was already a lot of confusion between that Labyrinth and this one,” Doeblin said.

The split has allowed Doeblin to found an independent corporation around the new Book Culture. He said the new name was chosen because “it suggests what we are trying to do here; it is something that we are deeply involved in promoting. It suggests that we are more than a bookstore at core.”

In the meantime, Book Culture remains a source of course books for many students and has been expanding its offerings to include many current magazines as well as several scholarly journals. In the next few weeks, according to Doeblin, there will be more noticeable changes such as a new banner and marquee, different tote bags, and a new Web site. Regardless of all the changes, it will still honor all credits, gift cards, and memberships from Labyrinth.

Doeblin said that he recently signed a new long-term lease and plans to remain in the neighborhood for the long haul.