M. Coy Books on Pine is closing, and, because we spent hours and hours there as a teenager without buying anything, we're feeling a bit jerk-ish for not having patronized the place more in adulthood.

Founder Michael Coy (yeah, he founded Bailey/Coy, too) sure knows how to make us feel like a tool. He tells the P-I:

"We're going to miss interaction with our customers, but we will not miss waking up in the middle of the night and wondering how to pay the store's bills."

Ouch. Rub it in.

Back when downtown was our after-school program, M. Coy was a frequent stop in our route between dropping off our satchel at Nordstrom's bag check (where they always took it, no questions asked) and buying hombow at Pike Place Chinese Cuisine.

M. Coy had nice selection of books, but we were drawn to some of the more modern selections in the photography category.

We'd flip through the tattoo and piercing anthologies: M. Coy is where we first saw a clit piercing (hell, where we first saw a clit).

Where we checked out the work of Robert Mapplethorpe (whoa!)--which at the time had Congress's knickers in a bunch--and Jock Sturges who, well, it's not something to Wiki at work.

We graduated high school, went to college, where our hours at M. Coy permitted us to impress girls with our knowledge of controversial photographers.

But when we moved back, did we spend any dough at M. Coy? Well, yeah, but not that much.

In 2008, we'll rededicate ourselves to supporting the businesses that permitted us to wander around day after day without buying anything.

Sharper Image, there's a foot massager sale in your future.

"Dog Leaf Kids Visit SODO" by SlightlyNorth from the Seattlest Flickr Pool