the strand bookstore (in honor of)

murder by strangulation, improvised blackjack, and ice pick - in november 1938 a new york jury found robert irwin, a twenty-eight year old sculptor, guilty of triple murder, and he was sentenced to 139 years in prison. within ten days of his arrival at sing sing, the prison doctors found him to be psychotic and he was transferred to a hospital for the criminally insane. no one was very surprised. samuel leibowitz, irwin's defense counsel, had called him completely crazy and said that his brain was 'like a scrambled egg.'
the psychiatric evidence prompted the following verse from a hearst columnist:

he did not murder anyone
and such a charge not nice is
he's just the charming victim of
a 'catathymic crisis.'

That said, actually after a while I spent more money at Alabaster Books around the corner.

And, having moved, I find that Powells (plus no sales tax) makes up for it...

I miss the $1 book bins out on the sidewalk. I could spend hours pouring over them.

I should visit this store sometime, perhaps september end.

Once you get to London, you'll see what I mean; the city puts NYC (and most American cities, for that matter) to shame in terms of the number and variety of places to blow your budget on the printed word. After a few weeks, you'll probably wonder what you ever saw in that place.

yeah, this is OTM, and I do just go looking and find great stuff. that Ives biography will appear when it is meant to appear!

*waits*

er, in the meantime, can anyone recommend an NYC bookstore with a strong music selection? or do I have to go to London

In short - disappointed.

a) what I wanted, b) in decent nick, c) the right price

After a few weeks, you'll probably wonder what you ever saw in that place.

a wrong call if there ever was one.

Then again - I did see some 2nd-hand shops I liked in NYC: quite decent stuff in Williamsburg. It seemed to me that such shops over there had more of a total cultural ambience than here - a determined atmosphere, with music playing, political stuff prominent, etc.

And how fun is it to watch that group of men arguing over science or conspiracy or whatever while ravaging the uncorrected proof rack? Am I the only one who sees them?

From what I remember about second hand book shops in the UK, I think they're smaller, and therefore a bit more selective about what they take in, but that means that you won't be as likely to find a real weird one. Like a book in Latvian on Latvian preposition usage.

And Williamsburg is just like that. It's one giant hipster "political" youth art commune, with some older Poles and Hispanics mixed in for neighborhood authenticity (keepin it 4 real, trying to survive ridiculous rent hikes, yo). Do you remember the names of the bookstores you liked there? I like the expression "a determined atmosphere," even though I'm not 100% sure what it means.

I accept your point that this may be merely typical W'burg.