This is the Strand Bookstore, the biggest used bookstore in the world. According to its website, it has 18 miles of used, new, rare and out-of-print books in its stores. Most of the books here are 50% or more off the listed prices.Before the arrival of Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com, the Strand Bookstore was the biggest mail order book company in the country. I remember browsing through their catalogues as a young college student in the early 1990s.
So have you read any good books lately? I just finished Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert recently, which came highly recommended by a co-wroker.
31 comments:
I've been blogging so much lately, I haven't been reading books! But I can recommend some oldies: "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain; "Frost on My Moustache" by Tim Moore; and "Turbulent Souls" by Stephen J. Dubner. All non-fiction, as it happens.
how was eat pray love? flipping thru it at a bookstore (definitely not at strand bookstore haha) i realised that not all books recommended by oprah is good. sigh.
Eat Pray Love was good, esp. the Eat part, which happened in Italy.
Hi Ming, I have just finished Duma Key by Stephen King it was great. I couldn't put it down until I had finished.
Mab:)
Hi Ming, the last book I read was Duma Key by Stephen King, I couldn't put it down until I had finished reading it.
Mab :)
Flags of our fathers is my latest as I was on Iwo Jima in 1956 and went around the island. I was amazed by what was still there then. Nowadays, the Japanese have it back and permission must be granted from them for any visit. President Bush, the first one, visited and met some of his old enemies there. I thought it was a good reunion.
Anyway, I used to buy a lot of books and had I kept them all I would have more books than rooms to put them in. So I began giving them away, boxes of new books, opened and read once, to people and to my kids and to the local library.
The library was a good choice for me since I read many books from the local library. Then I discovered they only accepted the books to sell at their annual book sale so that stopped that.
Now I have too many books stuck here and there and sometimes can only give three or four away to some kid who loves to read.
I heard of Strand before and think I bought books from them in years past but now I buy almost everything from Amazon.com.
It is a nice shot of a place that would be lovely to visit; I see books so high up there on shelves. I wonder how anybody ever gets to see them.
For whatever it is worth, I went to their online store and bought 3 books which should arrive here on Thursday. Thanks for reacquainting me with this famous place. Who could ask for anything more?
I just finished reading a biography of Varina Howell Davis, the wife of Jefferson Davis. Fascinating book!
What a cool bookstore. I'll have to make a point of visiting this one the next time I'm in NYC.
Read "this book will save your life" by A.M.Homes.
It is a humorous critique of contemporary society. Wonderful stuff.
I thought "Eat, Pray, Love" horribly over-rated........and would not recommend it.
Hope to see you soon.
e
Have read Eat Pray Love, and expected to love Italy. Thought India was the best instead. Read a young adult book recently called The Book Thief, it was interesting. Have also just finished What We Say Goes by Noam Chomsky. I Have an excellent new book on my blog by a young local author I am recommending called Now Coming To A Town Near You. Come visit me to take a look.
A wonderful photo Ming....I just gravitate toward bookstores...and could spend hours there. Barnes & Noble my favorite...lovely smells of delicous coffee linger throughout the store ....
I am reading a book by Jan Karon...A Light In The Window...my favorite author these days...
Jun, I often forgo Oprah's picks, though I find the title - EPL - intriguing! I usually have three to five books on the go at once and right now I'm reading "Three Day Road" by Joseph Boyden and Pat Schneider's "Writing Alone and With Others" having just finished re-reading "Letter's to a Young Poet" by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Thanks again for the tip about Strands. I'm making notes for my next visit to NYC.
Valerie
i've never been a huge fan of the strand.
great picture though.
I love the Strand!
I also like Eat Pray Love, although she came across as a wee bit self-absorbed in places. But hey, still an enjoyable book.
I remember a nice, clean restroom at the Strand - an important thing to find in a big city.
Blogging keeps me so busy... but I promise to stop by that place, someday :-)
Reading books is a luxury that I just haven't found time for.
If I were anywhere near the strand or even B&N I would probably freak out.
J'adore les librairies, celle là est en effet immense. Je viens de finir le livre de Don De Lillo "L'homme qui tombe" sur le 11 septembre, un très bon livre.
I love bookstores, that there is indeed immense. I just finished the book by Don De Lillo "Falling Man" on September 11, a very good book.
I'm reading The Hoax by Clifford Irving.
Wow, I could probably get lost in the Strand for days; your photo really shows how big it is.
I read EPL, and liked the Italy part the best too. Mmm, gelato.
Right now, I'm rereading Philip K. Dick: I've finished Simulacra, Dr Bloodmoney, Clans of the Arcane Moon, Man in the High Castle, and I'm starting Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
Did I mention that I read a lot?
<:o)
I've just started reading Cowboy: The Legend of Colton H. Bryant, a slim, brilliantly written novel set in modern day Wyoming. And I just finished reading Lawrence Block's 1986 mystery When the Sacred Ginmill Closes, a gritty look at the grittier-than-now New York of the mid-80s.
Ming...I started reading Eat Pray Love and just couldn't get past Italy. The book did nothing for me....even though Oprah gave it rave reviews.
I just started reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.
Good shot! I'm reading Douglas Adams right now, his Hitchhiker series.
I love bookstores. Haven't been to the Strand in ... forever... I'm reading Eat Pray Love but keep getting interrupted. I hope I'm able to finish it sometime soon. Love this photo.
Paz
Ohhh, the place of my dreams. Did you hear about the writer who found his books on the shelf, signed them and put them back? I forgot the name....
Reading now: The WPA Guide to New York City (in small bites. it's a heavy one) and Sweet and Low by Rich Cohen.
The Black Orchid and A Year In Provence last two read. That store looks marvellous. If it had coffee and and loo i'd be in all day. I miss big bookstores here. Amazon is my local now.
I'm surprised this is the largest in the world. I mean it's big but certainly not enormous.
Plus a good deal of it does not seem like used books. I think many of the books are remainders.
We have a great used bookstore in Nashville now - McKay's. I'm always picking up stuff for class there.
Last few books (since I have to read so many for class): Leave No Man Behind by Bill Bell (VietNam-themed), Tales of a Female Nomad (Rita Gelman Goldman), In Pursuit of a Perfect Awe (Scott Russell Sanders). All are literary nonfiction (my genre).
Oh, how I missed Strand! This is one of my favorite places in NYC. Thanks for sharing this.
Bandung Daily Photo (http://bandungdailyphotos.blogspot.com)
This place is on my 'to visit' list next trip to NYC.
B.
LOVED "Eat, Pray, Love"! And BIG bookstores...never made it to this one when I lived in Manhattan though.As for books, I gobble them up for snacks--lately I've been on another feng-shui craze!
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