One of the city’s largest independent bookstores, Coliseum Books, is a beehive of activity as it prepares to close its doors at the end of next week. Shoppers scour the shelves amid the brisk sales of books marked at a 40%, and at times as much a 70%, discount.

The store is closing after three and a half years on 42nd Street across from the main branch of the New York Public Library. Opened in 1974, it had been on 57th Street for 27 years. The store filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.

Yesterday, an editor at the Polish newspaper Nowy Dziennik, Jan Latus, snatched up a stack of books that included Joseph Epstein’s “Envy” and a collection of essays by critic Camille Paglia. A saxophonist who plans to enter journalism, David Sobel, selected Walter Laquer’s “The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day,” as well as Michael Wex’s “Born to Kvetch.”

“For the customer, it’s a happy and sad time,” Mr. Sobel said.

Metal magazine racks lay empty. The café is being used as a storage space for cardboard boxes. As the top and bottoms of the shelves grow bare, the staff moves the books to retain the stock at eye level. Best sellers were the first to go, and the cooking section is going quickly, according to a founding partner of the store, George Leibson.

“It’s a sad end to a long story,” Mr. Leibson said.

Diane Karlin, who has a background in art history, had a pile of books heavy on biographical subjects such as Helen of Troy, the Medicis, and Savonarola. She said Coliseum Books had been around for her entire life and praised the store as a place where one could always find something a bit different.

“I think it’s very sad,” locksmith Eric Feman, who works in the neighborhood, said. Carrying a small stack that included an oversize book on Popeye and a Time magazine almanac, he said he liked to read about nostalgia. Soon, the entire bookstore will vanish into just that.