It’s still there, the Reading Room. You may have assumed that the plucky and wonderful independent bookstore occupying a broom closet in Mandalay Place had closed by now (we first noted its imminent demise last February), a victim of corporate number-crunching. Especially now, in red-ink America. Nope. The doors are open, new books are coming in.

Oh, it’s going to close, all right: “It’s still gonna happen,” says manager Ana Viditchi. “It’s just a matter of when. It could be in the first quarter, it could be next month.”

For now, the store’s slow-drip demise isn’t particularly evident in the place itself. The book selection doesn’t look picked-over, tapered off; the shelves still have plenty of books the big chains skimp on. But you heard the lady: Could be next month. Go now and savor the sweet irony that a store—a bookstore—long ago consigned to death has managed to weather this killing economy. Too bad no bailout is coming.