The news that the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore would be moving hit me hard. Granted, it’s only to a space across the street. And I shouldn’t have been surprised. For years now, I’ve seen the great independent bookstores of New York and the Bay Area downsize or close up shop. Whether you blame mega-stores, the digital era of e-books in general or Amazon in particular, it’s an undeniable truth that the way that people are reading and buying books has changed.

But still it hit me hard: my favorite bookstore, the one that has anchored Main street Vineyard Haven and been such a large presence in the life of the Vineyard community, is moving.

I practically grew up at the Bunch of Grapes. As a 10-year-old, I was allowed to walk into town after dinner, usually with my sister, and we would spend our evenings plotting which Nancy Drew mystery to buy with the $2.50 we had saved. I learned about sales tax when the book cost more than the price imprinted on the spine, and I remember Lise Hvoslef, the children’s book buyer, fronted us the 13 cents. We were good for the money, she knew, because we’d be back. (She also explained that tax is “what mommy and daddy give the government to pay for Mr. Nixon’s bad war.”)

As I grew into my teen years, the Bunch of Grapes became a refuge where I could have some time to myself and peruse books not found on the shelves of the Vineyard Haven Library. I lingered over the vast card selection, choosing beautiful illustrations to send home to my friends stuck in the New Jersey suburbs. If the bookstore staff wondered about me and how often I hung out there, they never showed it and were always friendly and ready to help.

When I moved to the Vineyard full time after college, I joyfully took my place as an employee at the Bunch of Grapes. In some ways, my job seemed like community service — payback for all the hours the store had housed me up to that point. I now worked alongside Lise Hvoslef and just as she had done for me years before, I experienced the joy of connecting a child with the right book. I sold countless books and magazines to customers stuck in the standby line at the Vineyard Haven ferry terminal. During the holidays, Peg Littlefield’s notorious eggnog was served alongside store owner Ann Nelson’s cheese ball to keep shoppers merry. (I wasn’t so merry one Christmas Eve when a regular customer berated me for not stocking Euripides in hard cover.) We booksellers were there to answer the phone when the Associated Press called the store to find out if Salman Rushdie was hiding on the Island after a fatwah was issued against him. (He was not.) I kept an eye out for customers trying to surreptitiously use the store’s private restrooms, and played it cool when famous people came in to do their shopping. And almost every night, I caught a glimpse of a customer who reminded me of myself at a younger age, scrutinizing the shelves, making careful selections and then losing herself in the pleasures of a great story.

Much has changed in the last 20 years, and most of the bookstores that are left have become places to plug in laptops and drink lattes as well as browse titles.

And now this change has hit the Vineyard, too. In January, the LeBreton family closed Edgartown Books. And Bunch of Grapes — the only year-round bookstore selling new books on the Island — is downsizing. I wonder how many titles will be lost in the 1,700 square feet that the store will lose when it moves to the Bowl and Board space. Still, I’m looking forward to it and expect it to be a success. Because the Vineyard is a place where people still like to read and also gather. I noted recently that the Vineyard Haven Library is open more hours than most branches of the New York Public Library. I’ve been to weekend afternoon concerts at the West Tisbury Library that are standing room only.

Through the years the Bunch of Grapes has been more than a main street book store — it has been a community center of sorts. To that end, I hope the coffee bar that bookstore owner Dawn Braasch plans to eventually install at the new location will provide the community with the sustenance of a gathering place, along with the lattes.

Gazette contributor Elizabeth Bennett lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and West Tisbury.