Also From Yesterday…

Smokler on November 23, 2004

Suzan and I were pretty zonked after a day of travel so we decided to spend our first afternoon in New York with some aimless wondering. We took in the Gotham Book Mart, 85 years-young this year and still running like clockwork. Has an amazingly knowledgable staff, an enormous poetry section that Suzan got lost in and is so old school that they fill out orders by hand. I wasn’t so charmed by the last part when they mistakenly combined my purchases with Suzan’s and had to spend 20 minutes untangling them. I don’t find luddites charming. I find them sad. GBM seems to recognize this though. One of the clerks grinned when I asked if they are getting their own website. “We’re working on it”, he said, and practically winked at me.

Oh and I learned who Delmore Schwartz was. His picture is all over the walls of the place.

From there, with it getting dark, we grabbed a cab to the East Village so Suzan could do some window shopping. I spent way too much time in Dinosaur Hill and bought some antique buttons for a $5 schmate of a shirt I purchased in Cuba that lost its buttons after one wearing. What did I expect? The buttons were $7, 40% more than the shirt.

After stopping for a black & white cookie, we grabbed the subway back to the hotel to meet Jo for dinner.

An excellent, aimless day in New York.

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2 Replies to “Also From Yesterday…”

  1. Matt November 23, 2004 at 9:27 am

    I love Gotham Book Mart. Lunch time there definitely saved me during my stint in Big Publishing. The luddite thing – if they can survive as an anachronizm, more power to them – anything to contrast the Borders/B&N/Amazonification of bookstores. Yeah, maybe a computer wouldn’t kill them, and it’s frustrating, but that’s part of their charm.
    RE Delmore Schwartz – his short story In Dreams Begin Responsibility is worth a read.

  2. Matt November 23, 2004 at 9:27 am

    I love Gotham Book Mart. Lunch time there definitely saved me during my stint in Big Publishing. The luddite thing – if they can survive as an anachronizm, more power to them – anything to contrast the Borders/B&N/Amazonification of bookstores. Yeah, maybe a computer wouldn’t kill them, and it’s frustrating, but that’s part of their charm.
    RE Delmore Schwartz – his short story In Dreams Begin Responsibility is worth a read.

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