The entire five days I spent in New York City, I exited the subway station to the street and turned in the correct direction only once.  Even when I thought ‘my instincts say it’s to the right, so I’ll go to the left,’ I went the wrong way.  I was so sure I heading the correct direction down 19th Street to Idlewild Books that I walked blocks and blocks away from the store.  It’s a lovely neighborhood, I know because I’ve seen it at a pedestrian’s pace.  Actually, a little quicker.  On the way back it started to sprinkle, then it started to rain, then hard, and I started to sprint.  When I entered Idlewild Books I was dripping.  I literally shook myself off on the landing like my golden retriever.

Some of the stained glass and chairs are from the original Idlewild Airport

David, the owner of the store, asked “Did you forget your umbrella?”

I said, “I’m from Los Angeles, I don’t even own an umbrella.”

I’m sure the store is beautiful in any weather, but it is perfect for a stormy day.  It exudes warmth.  Check out the picture with the wooden floors, huge front window and bookshelves everywhere.  There is an alcove or two for curling up in.  In fact, the entire time I was there a man was diligently working on his laptop in a corner.  In Los Angeles, he would be a screenwriter, but since I was in New York I assumed he was writing the next Great American Novel (no, it wasn’t Franzen).

I hesitate to say that Idlewild Books is a travel bookstore because I fear that the title invokes the travel section at Borders with sloppy shelves of guidebooks.  Idlewild Books has guidebooks (they looked neatly organized), but its charm is as an advocate for traveling with or through literature.  In the last 18 months, I think I’ve purchased about a dozen books there (a set for each family vacation) and only one was a guidebook that David practically had to beg me to buy when he found out I loved Italian art.  My experience has been to tell David where I’m going and what I’m interested in and he tells me the books that will add an entirely new dimension to the trip.  I should add, it’s not just me, he recommends the books my teenagers will carry with them.  [What we read on our latest family vacation, including David's suggestions, will be in a future post.]

The store is divided geographically with all the guidebooks, novels, YA, classics and non-fiction about the appropriate area in one location.  By providing novels relevant to the literature, culture and history of various countries, the store is also a treasure trove of translated literature.  When I was looking for books to read while traveling in Italy, it was from Idlewild Books that I found translated gems.  Lately, they started offering language classes in the store.  It’s one stop shopping-research traveling in a country, read it’s literature and learn its language-all at Idlewild Books.

If you can’t make it to the store, check out the website.  I found the website focuses more on guidebooks than literature for some areas, for those countries I recommend calling the store directly and ask for recommendations.  Give it a try, you’ll find that ‘you are there’ reading (to quote Anne Fadiman) enriches your trip.

Idlewild Books

12 W 19th Street

New York, NY 10011

Tel:  212.414.8888

Mother and son reading on the kangaroo's tail

The Store Of My Childhood Dreams

My favorite day in elementary school was the day the Scholastic Books flyers arrived.  Growing up in a small town with very few bookstore options and having read through everything of interest in our small library, this was my monthly goldmine of book discoveries.  Weighing my desire for each book while carefully allocating my allowance money provided early lessons in money management.  This childhood literary crush didn’t fade with time.  When my kids started school, I raced to volunteer to be the Scholastic Parent.  Every year I was amazed that I was competing with nobody, the parents and teachers happily gave me the job.

When I saw The Scholastic Store on my way to Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, I practically skipped over (well, I might have actually skipped if the weather wasn’t so hot and muggy).  I hesitated for a moment going into a children’s bookstore without any kids, either with me or at home.  I realized this was the perfect opportunity since my teenagers would have wanted to spend less time in a children’s bookstore than I would.  The store is a delight!  It’s a cross between a playground and a bookstore.  Don’t take my word for it, check out the store tour video.

The Scholastic Store is organized by age.  I spent quite awhile in the YA section for teenage readers.  As a mother who inadvertently gives her daughter YA books that are too old for her, I found it helpful that the YA books were divided between teens and pre-teens.  The sales people were immensely helpful, pointing out several books that a lover of the Twilight series might enjoy.  The rest of the store was a bit of a walk down memory lane.  The Magic Tree House section reminded me of the hours we spent learning about the world from Ms. Frizzle.  Harry Potter central brought back the days we had to buy three copies of the latest book so we could all read it at once.  And of course, I recalled the truly olden days when the Big Red Dog was the hero of our world.  Add to those series the Hunger Games trilogy, the 39 Clues Books, and Madeline, it’s clear Scholastic publishes terrific kids books.  To see them all together in this publisher’s bookstore is a treat.

The Scholastic Store is more than a purveyor of books, it’s an activity center.  With regular storytime every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, activities every Saturday and a dream birthday party destination spot, the store attracts our littlest readers with fun.

If you’re in Soho, with or without kids, stop by and indulge yourself in a visit to childhood reading.

The Scholastic Store

557 Broadway

Soho, NY

Tel:  212.343.6166

On Saturday, October 9th, Larry is commandeering a chartered bus, picking up 50 bibliophiles in Harrisburg and Lancaster, and dropping them off at Washington Square Park with a map locating 23 area bookstores.  Larry’s description of a few of the stores:

The stores include everything from the Strand, which advertises 16 miles of shelf space, to Bonnie Slotnik Cookbooks, just a few blocks away, which is the size of a living room but has a worldwide reputation.  (No lie, she carries cookbooks from all the way back in the 1700s and has chefs and collectors from all over the world calling her.)  Some other favorites:  Three Lives & Company, Housing Works Bookstore Care, Books of Wonder, Partners & Crime . . . I could go on and on.  Some new stores on the list:  the Scholastic Store, the Taschen Store, and Idlewild Bookshop.  It’s a fantastic mix of new, used, and specialty bookstores.

The bus leaves at 7PM giving the participants 8 hours of bookstore shopping time.  This is the blueprint for my perfect day!

If you’re interested in joining this tour or learning about future tours, contact Larry through his website, via Facebook, or via Twitter.

Fighting AIDS One Book at a Time

I don’t know of another bookstore in the US like Housing Works Bookstore Cafe.  The entire premise is to raise money for AIDS programs; it’s a thrift store for books.  I keep thinking I must have been in other ‘charity’ bookstores (other than at a library), but can’t come up with one.  To date, Housing Works has helped over 20,000 men, women, and children with AIDS/HIV.  The public contributes in a variety of ways.  Housing Works offers memberships.  For example, a $60 annual fee entitles the member to 10% off all purchases.  Book donations stock the store, in fact there was a table of books donated by Chronicle Books, but unlike most used bookstores, the public is actually giving the books to the store without receiving a credit.  If that was an option in LA, I’d happily give my books to a charity bookstore (I already give my books to the library, but I’m open to spreading the love).  And, of course, you can do what I did-buy books and eat there.

The Bookstore

It’s all for a good cause, but is it a good bookstore?  You bet.  The atmosphere is used store perfection:  wood floors, dark bookshelves, open space for lounging or holding events, a wide selection.  In the essay section I found a volume of Michel de Montaigne’s Essays that has been on my ‘to be purchased’ list for over a year.  In classics I found Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time which I passed up the day before at Posman Books.  The book was discounted and it was for a good cause, so I succumbed.  But the prize was waiting for my in the short story section.  A book rack displayed recommended books and there was Nathan Englander’s For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. Half an hour earlier, I was shopping at McNally Jackson and almost bought Englander’s book; at Housing Works I practically lunged for the book wondering why no one had snatched it before me.

Why my reaction to Englander?  A few weeks earlier, Claire e-mailed me and said I had to read Englander’s story in the New Yorker’s 20 under 40 issue.  People tell me I have to read stuff all the time, and I love hearing recommendations, but often it feels overwhelming to add them to the sea of books on my desk.  But, Claire isn’t the biggest fan of short stories, so I paid some attention.  When she asked the next day if I had read the story and sent me the link, I knew I needed to read it.  It’s gut wrenching and  impeccably written, Claire describes it best in her post.  Needless to say, I felt like I hit the jackpot when I found it, I almost took a picture of it to send to Claire.

Any used bookstore where I can pick up two books I passed up at regular prices within 24 hours of seeing them qualifies as a good bookstore in my opinion.  Plus, they serve a mean quiche.  Check out the two amusing signs I found in the store.  FYI, Housing Works and McNally Jackson are less than two blocks apart, making for a nice duo excursion.

If you know of other charity bookstore, other than those associated with libraries, please tell us about them!

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe

126 Crosby Street

New York, New York   10012

Tel:  212.334.3324

Having spent the day at the Museum seeing the French paintings I read about earlier in the summer, I failed to leave enough time to explore the store.  I was proverbial kid in a candy store, everywhere I turned there were books I wanted to sample and buy. The book tables were organized geographically (this seems to be a trend in NYC, both McNally Jackson and Idlewild are similar) which was perfect for me.  I could find books about Realism, Orientalism and Impressionism, trends all were present in late 19th century French art, in one place.

Further in the store, I discovered sections devoted to each of the Museum departments, along with separate sections for reference, instructional and the usual artist monographs (here comprising a long wall of offerings).  I spent time in the criticism section and came away with two books:  The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe and Art and Culture:  Critical Essays by Clement Greenberg.  Greenberg was a proponent of abstract art and hugely influential in the emergence of 20th century American Art.  Wolfe isn’t so enamored with modern art or Greenberg, so I’m looking forward to an interesting dialogue between the books.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art publishes enough books to keep an art lover busy for a lifetime.  These books are displayed on several dedicated shelves in the store.  I momentarily dreamed of following the example of the kids in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg, hiding in the museum and working my way methodically through the books and the holdings.  [As an aside, when my kids were younger, I read The Mixed-Up Files to them and made a list of the art mentioned in the book.  With that list, I designed my own tour for the kids at the Met.  It was the perfect way to introduce them to the collection without completely overwhelming all of us.]

My one disappointment with the store is that there isn’t a bookseller, or at least I didn’t notice anyone who could talk to me about books.  I’ve experienced this with all of the museum bookstores I’ve visited.  There are lovely cashiers, but not a resident bookseller who can guide me to the next great art history book that I would love.  In other bookstores, I can walk in and say I loved The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt (which I did), what do you recommend I read next?  I greatly miss that interaction.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 5th Avenue at 82nd Street

New York, New York  10028-0198

Who would I want to see?  Paul Hardin, Paul Krugman and Sam Lipsyte top a long list.  A weekend of events and several independent bookstores in the area, it sounds like paradise.

People Were Reading Everywhere

It was a wonderland of reading!  A Mom was sitting with her kids reading to them.  A young couple cuddled on a bench, she had her head in his lap and was reading a picture book to him.  A kid was on the floor in the aisle flipping through a book.  Two teens were hogging the YA aisle passing books back and forth.  I loved the vibe.  I especially enjoyed how the picture books were divided along two sides of the aisle, contemporary picture books on one side and classic picture books on the other, all on shelves allowing most of the covers to face out.  What I would have given to have been there after Kyle was born and I was constantly trying to remember a classic picture book to share with him and I could only conjure up a partial name or a vague cover.  This would have been my Mecca.

I wasn’t struggling around the teens in YA long before a bookseller came up and asked if I needed help.  I described Kelsey, that she reads everything, and she handed me gimme a call by Sarah Mlynowski, a story of a senior getting a phone connection to her freshman self.  Kelsey had just told me that she wanted to write a story that is a series of letters to her older self, what a perfect book for her!

SUZANNE COLLINS IS LAUNCHING MOCKINGJAY AT MIDNIGHT ON AUGUST 24TH AT THE BOOKS OF WONDER

The bookseller asked me if Kelsey had read Hunger Games, I laughed and said “Pssh!  Before anyone in her school, she is famous for her love of that book!”  Then she told me that at midnight on August 24th, the first moment that anyone will be able to purchase Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins will be at Books of Wonder.  I squealed.  I asked how many copies they ordered and she said “more books than any independent bookstore has any business buying.”  We laughed and acknowledged that they won’t have any problems selling signed first editions of Mockingjay.  I told her that we timed when we were flying home from vacation to be back from the airport long enough to get in the car and drive to the bookstore to buy Mockingjay at midnight.  If only I had known Collins would be Books of Wonder, I would have been tempted to stop over in NYC, race over, and then dash back for the rest of the flight home.  Now that would have made me mother of the century!

Wizard of Oz

The store is famous for its Wizard of Oz collection, but in the excitement over Mockingjay, I forgot to ask about it and look at it.  My purchases qualified me to earn two Books of Wonder dollars, guess I’ll have to go back and use them next time I’m in NYC and I’ll make sure I spend time with the Wizard of Oz.

Books of Wonder

18 West 18th St.

New York, NY 10011

Tel:  212.989.3270

Can't you tell it's a very welcoming store?

While I absolutely admit that New York has the most hustle and bustle of any city in the country, for visitors during a summer heatwave it can be a bit overwhelming.  My favorite respite is walking the High Line in Chelsea with a pause here and there to gaze at the Hudson River, preferably with a gelato in hand.  After walking the High Line twice, I stopped by Chelsea Mall for a snack and found among the artisan food stalls Posman Books.  Is there a better combination for a mall:  a cheese store, a wine store, a chocolate store and a bookstore?  If I had to design heaven, I might just hand over the plans to the Chelsea High Line and Chelsea Mall.

The booksellers were having fun when I walked in, everyone was laughing.  Between their friendliness and the warmth exuded from the wood floors and bright atmosphere, I felt immediately welcomed.  I asked if they had a favorite under-the-radar book they could recommend and one immediately raved about The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.  She was surprised it was the first time I learned of it.  It’s about an English newspaper struggling to survive in Rome.  Still intrigued by how the Italians interact with the Internet (which is gutting our newspapers) differently than we do, I bought it.

Actually, as much as I say that bookstores reflect their community so they are different, I was a little taken aback that at least a third of the front table books were new to me.  This encouraged me to discover what else was different about Posman Books.  The front section is full of tables and bookshelves on current fiction, non-fiction, reference books, New York books, and travel books.  A nice space is set aside for cooking books-remember it’s a foodie mall-and I noticed that an upcoming event was a cookbook author who was to arrive with samples.  

The back section is a bit sparse and in the process of being remodeled.  There is a long wall of fiction books.  My eye caught on Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time four book series (or a literary four movement composition).  Again, never heard of it (a reoccurring theme) but lined up on the bookshelves the spines of the four books created a beautiful picture.  I have bought a book for its cover, but for its spine?  It seemed excessive, especially considering I’d have to haul it home.  If you have read the series, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The back has a wide children’s book area with a colorful carpet, busy schedule of kid’s story time, and several signs about diaper changing.  I asked about the signs, how much diaper changing happens before you put up seven signs?  Apparently a lot, and the final straw seemed to be when a mother put a dirty diaper next to the cash register on the counter.  Given the accompanying odor, management decided that those activities were better accomplished elsewhere.

Surprisingly, the YA section was fairly skimpy.  I asked about this since YA is the rage at many bookstores and among bloggers and authors.  She said there is a good customer base for children’s books and that part of the remodel involved beefing up the YA section.  I will definitely be in Chelsea the next time I’m in NYC and stop by Posman Books to see the remodel.

Posman Books Chelsea

75 Ninth Avenue

New York, NY 10011

Tel:  212.627.0304

The store is full of cozy areas like this one

If I ever live in New York City, I would chose an apartment close to McNally Jackson, that’s how much I loved this store.  I first heard of it in 2009 when it was on The Millions NYC bookstore walking tour and then Michele Filigate (who I really think of as readandbreathe on Twitter) of RiverRun Bookstore recommended it.  With that information, it made the top of my list for NYC bookstore stops.

McNally Jackson is a thinking persons bookstore.  I almost shouted for joy at the three floor-to-ceiling bookcases of essays and criticism, a genre I love to read.  Determined not to buy any more books, I left with only two.  Arguing (with myself) that both were in an incredible essay selection that should be supported, both were 10% off because they were staff picks, and given my memory I won’t remember to buy them ‘later,’ I ended up with The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton and The Forest for the Trees:  An Editor’s Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner.

Every genre is represented in this two story store (even the beach reads all of us thinking people need at times), yet the books are displayed in such a way to cast them in a new light.  This is the first time I’ve seen a literature section in a non-travel bookstore organized by country.  I learned a little about myself walking through the fiction section, just by the name of the country I noticed I was more drawn to some shelves more than others.  Of course, then I had to overcompensate for what I felt was the wrong way to judge a book.  Yet, in all honesty, the British section evoked the coziness of Jane Austen and Latin America just reminded me of how much I struggle with magic realism.  Who knew I would have to think about my prejudices just by reading fiction headings.

I took a long look at the Jose Saramago’s books because McNally Jackson created a display of his work.  It’s easy for me, and all readers, to know what’s new, but I appreciate it when a bookstore carves out a little space to recognize the body of work of an author.  It gives me the opportunity to pick up a book that I didn’t get a chance to read when it was first published.  The store has the usual tables of recommended books, Indie bestseller, even a tribute to up-and-coming authors with a corner for the New Yorker’s 20 under 40 authors, all well curated.  (Okay, in the New York book section they did have Rogue’s Gallery which if you follow me on Twitter you know I’m irritated by how bad that book is, but no store is completely perfect.)

The store is rounded out with an impressive selection of literary magazines, a full events calendar (I’ll be looking at it first when planning my next trip to NYC), unique book clubs (I meant to ask what the Art and Beauty Club reads and if I could join via Skype) and a bright cafe full of treats.  Oh, and the bathroom with a sign I have only seen in New York.

McNally Jackson

52 Prince St.

New York, NY

Tel:  212.274.1160

My first test for a museum bookstore is what books are available to supplement the current exhibit.  For the Matisse exhibit, MoMA produced a stunning catalogue, Matisse:  Radical Invention 1913-1917. I bought the catalogue before visiting the museum, read most of it, and then brought it along with me.  This is a great approach if you love the art you are going to visit, I appreciated the paintings more than if I was just encountering them for the first time.  However, beware of the heft of catalogues, this one could throw out your back.  In the bookstore, there was a variety of Matisse related items, a few biographies, a book about his relationship (competition with?) Picasso, a small book about the MOMA permanent Matisse collection, and a collection of his writings.  It was very tempting not to pick up some of these gems, however, the catalogue was all I was willing to cart back 10 blocks to my hotel room.

The rest of the bookstores are equally as impressive.  There is one store located on the second floor mezzanine which can only be accessed with an entrance ticket, it is quieter and has a row of chairs for reading and perusing books.  The downstairs store has a wider selection.  MoMA publishes its own books that help access its permanent collection.  I bought a small book on Lichtenstein works in the permanent collection (simply called Lichtenstein) and read it over lunch.  I saw a Lichtenstein at SFMOMA, “Figures with Sunset,” that I fell in love with and was hoping to learn more about the artist at MOMA.  The book is terrific, in fact if I had more time at MoMA, I would by books on other artists in this series (Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse).  In about 40 pages, the author, Carolyn LanchnerRoy, pinpointed Lichtenstein’s place in pop art and his foundation in and reference to art history in his works.  The disappointing part was that only one Lichtenstein was on view that day.  While I understand that there is limited space, if a museum is bothering to write a book about its collection of a certain artist, it should have more than one piece on view.

In addition to shelves of books published by MoMA (a catalogue of the permanent collection, a highlights book, catalogues from past exhibits), the bookstores have masses and masses of monographs on specific artists. Given the time frame that modern art covers (1860s onward) when technology created new genres of art, the stores include significant photography and film sections, topics generally not covered well in non-modern specific stores.  In general, it appeared that the bulk of the books were on Western modern art.  There were a couple of shelves of what I’ve come to call ‘layman’s art books.’  These are books that the interested person would read to gain a broader education in art history.  MoMA has several shelves of these, I would have liked to have seen more, but after visiting five museum bookstores in the last few weeks, I’m beginning to wonder how many of these books actually exist.

My ultimate museum bookstore question is whether the store is worth stopping by even if you’re not going to the museum.  For MoMA Design and Bookstore, the answer is a resounding yes for any lover of modern art.

MoMA Design and Bookstores

11 West 53rd St.

New York City, NY

Tel:  212-708-9700