THEBookshops worth finding in person.
PLACES TO WANDER · ISSUE 001Map: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, © OpenStreetMap contributors and GIS User Community. Selected streets and water; numbered points use the existing address matches. Use directions for your visit.
Browse the drawings. Open a shop for visiting details.
The window does some of the talking. Three Lives keeps its books close to the street, at the corner of Waverly Place and West 10th.
The person behind the counter read these before you did. Leave room for the conversation.
154 West 10th Street, New York, NY 10014
The Broadway sign is only the beginning. Strand brings new, used and rare books together at a scale that invites a little getting lost.
The neighboring shelf has been waiting longer than you have. Start with a subject you know and let it interrupt.
828 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
McNally Jackson’s SoHo shop puts a broad literary selection alongside books made to be looked at closely. At 134 Prince Street, a change of shelf can become a change of medium.
Art, photography, design and literature make neighbouring shelves worth a look.
134 Prince Street, New York, NY 10012
French and English share the shelves at Albertine, inside the Payne Whitney mansion. Books from across the French-speaking world give this Fifth Avenue room a much wider reach.
You do not need to cross an ocean to change the language of your afternoon.
972 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10075
Used books, records and a café fill Housing Works’ Crosby Street bookstore. The changing selection makes a second visit a different proposition.
The book you take home funds the charity that runs the shop.
126 Crosby Street, New York, NY 10012
A bookshop puts someone else’s choices in front of you. Spend time with a subject outside your work. See what comes back with you.
At Yu & Me on Mulberry Street, Asian American and immigrant writers fill the reading list. The bookshop also has a café, bar and calendar of gatherings.
Immigrant writers, a café and a bar under one roof. Nobody here is only one thing.
44 Mulberry Street, New York, NY 10013
The windows on Fulton Street give you a generous first look. Inside Greenlight, the reading continues through staff selections, book groups and author events.
A reading or a book group gives the next book some company.
686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Coffee and feminist reading share a home at Café con Libros. One gives you a reason to pause; the other gives you something to sit with.
Begin with a book. Nothing after it is scheduled.
724 Prospect Place, Brooklyn, NY 11216
A used-book shop, a bar and a small press: Molasses brings reading and making books into the same orbit.
A bar, a used bookshop and a press in the same orbit. Nobody has decided which is the front.
770 Hart Street, Brooklyn, NY 11237
The Corporate Artist: The Art of Working Beautifully is Morgan Sage Norman’s book about bringing your creative self to everyday work. It explores how the roles we play, the conversations we have and the decisions we make can become creative practice.
Find your copy ↗Try Every Role Has a Medium (Your Craft) for a different way to look at what you do.
Or turn to Nothing Is Wasted and Rightsizing Importance. Begin with the title that catches you.
Another city. Another way to look.