The Great New York City Bookstore Tour - Part 1

A mysterious scroll arrived one St. Patrick's Day.

I unfurled it to see this:

My wife was taking me on The Great New York City Bookstore Tour, having hand-selected the bookstores that she thought would be most to my liking.

First stop:

• 192 Books

 This one room bookstore was neat and organized but held a deceptively large amount of books. Of particular interest to me were the many works in translation.

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• Left Bank Books

On the day we went, Left Bank Books had a sign that read "Closed for Spring Cleaning." However, I had been there once before, when I attended the Gay Pride Parade in 2010. They have an impressive collection of signed and first edition books.

The Waste Land signed by T.S. Eliot stands out here.

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• The Strand

The Strand's Rare Book Room

A first edition of Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac

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• Posman Books in Chelsea Market

"In response to those recently leaving with books without paying for them, otherwise known as 'stealing' . . . Can you not see that we are your friend?" 

And the rest of Chelsea Market is cool:

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• McNally Jackson Books  

McNally Jackson has an Espresso Book Machine to print out books on demand: 

They also have one of the most inspiring bathrooms you can find:

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• Housing Works Bookstore Café 

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• East Village Books

This corridor of books stretches into their backyard.

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You can only do so much in a day, so I have to hope that the other bookstores will still be there when I return.

-this took place in 2015
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You're reading this, so it's time to admit it: You’ve been one–a bookstore hobo. Lingering too long among shelves of books. Sitting between the aisles reading a book you know you don’t have the money to buy, and thinking to yourself, “Oh, if I could only stay here forever.” So why don't you read my novella The Bookstore Hobos? Published in the Eunoia Review, The Bookstore Hobos is the story of Zaid, who tries to live in a bookstore when he finds himself unemployed. His adventures will take him to New York City, where he must attempt to apply what he's read to the real world.
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Joseph Patrick Pascale - How to Get a Promotion When Your Boss Is Trying to Kill You (Accurate Accounts of Office Work: Book 1), a comic literary novel coming from Waldorf Publishing in July 2018.

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Other entries in this series: 

The Great Seattle Literary and Bookstore Tour, Pt. 1