Shirts at the Strand

There are a bunch of t-shirts featuring literary classics for sale at New York's largest bookstore, The Strand.

This one caught my eye mostly because I can't imagine that J.D. Salinger's heirs would give permission for this cover to be exploited so brazenly, but they probably don't control the rights to the image and now that he's dead who really cares anyway. I always thought his "don't publish club, don't talk about don't publish club" credo was a little bit of a put-on anyway. If he didn't want to publish his writing it's really no big deal since it seems he kind of went off the proverbial deep end back in the mid-60s. Besides his behavior was really odd in the years to follow no matter how you look at it and I'm sure his writing was more "Raise High The Roof Beam" than "Catcher in the Rye."

At least someone's making some money off these shirts.

Gold-Digging With Pride

A pile of books stacked near the Strand. Presumably this is a pile that couldn't be resold. However, I'm happy to see they do some things in Texas with a sense of pride. It's really hard to know what goes on with those girls from Dallas, but I'm generally OK as long as they're totally upfront about it. Discuss amongst yourselves.

Friendly Advice

Some solid advice for a rainy Sunday. Good font choice too.

I've been appreciating some English punk from the late 70s this past week. Here's "Typical Girls" by the Slits, one of my faves. I love the way the lead singer dances and red is always a good color for a jacket.

New Yorkers Are Not Rude

If you're not from New York then you surely know that the city has a reputation for a certain amount of rudeness. It's really not true. New Yorkers aren't any ruder than anyone else or from any other city. Yes, we do everything a lot faster and have less patience for slowness than elsewhere in the world. However, I think we just don't want to be bothered by anyone handing us flyers or begging for money or asking directions or any other sort of random nonsense and that comes off as rudeness. But most New Yorkers are actually very helpful if they aren't rushing off somewhere. Though that's actually rather rare that we're not rushing from one place to another. We do have helpful opinions and ideas about everything and anything and are usually not afraid to share a good tip on a restaurant or a quick way to get somewhere.

One thing we New Yorkers do love is to point out other people's rudeness. So we're used to seeing great signs like the one taped to the information desk/book pick up counter downstairs in the basement at The Strand Book Store telling us exactly how not to be rude. There are a lot of books behind the counter awaiting pickup and I can just imagine it can get pretty frustrating when people come up to the desk all day long and point a finger in the general direction of the massive wall of books and say "I have those books right THERE on hold."

All that being said, The Strand has a really great system for ordering books. You just call and place your order and they find it in the 18 trillion miles of books (and growing) and wrap a rubber band around the books and place them behind the counter awaiting your eventual pickup. It's super efficient, just don't be rude and point your finger.

18 Miles of Books

The Strand is the largest bookstore in New York City. It's huge and I love going there. They claim that there are 18 miles of books scattered across several floors.

I don't think anyone has ever taken the time to measure how many miles of florescent lights there are hanging from the ceiling. Any guesses?

18 Miles of Paper

Can you really have too many books?

If you're like me, you know the answer to that question. I like The Strand, but I don't love the Strand like some people. There is something that I can't quite put my finger on, but even still this is probably one of the best places to get books in New York City. I primarily buy the art and photography books on the 2nd Floor, the review copies of new fiction and non-fiction in the basement and sometimes I even find myself lugging a small stack of new cookbooks up to the register.

(The purple dress is nice too.)