My new odyssey
I’ve decided —and don’t quote me on this in case I give up, but I don’t think I’ll give up—that I want to visit every independent bookstore in New York City as named by this list and write about the experience of being there. It’s a little project sponsored by—you guessed it—teacher summer break. It could take weeks—it could take years! The fun is in the not-knowing.
Starting close to home: Book Culture LIC! Book Culture is a New York chain, with two stores up in Harlem and one in Long Island City.
This is a quiet bookstore, by nature of being in Court Square. The feel of Book Culture is actually, now that I think about it, pretty similar to the feel of Court Square overall: comfortable and clean, but not really charming or quirky or all that interesting. (I can say this—I live in LIC.) This is half bookstore, half gift shop. It’s next to a Sweetgreen, if that tells you anything. (Again, I’m allowed to say this because I am, if nothing else, a huge sweetgreen fan, and I say this with all the love in the world, but Sweetgreen is charmless, too.)
There are a couple different staff selections areas at Book Culture. Not entirely clear why they’re separated: one conspicuous table section is called Our Picks in Paperback, but then the normal staff selection wall also has mostly paperback books, so. I wasn’t in love with the staff selections in paperback table. First of all, only a few books had actual written recommendations, which, as we all know, is the whole point of a staff recommendations section: to track and judge the taste of individual booksellers. Secondly, a lot of the books were just the most popular books right now—Ali Hazelwood, Emily Henry, Dolly Alderton. The point of staff recommendations, to me, is to surface books that fly under the radar, and to explain your choice. This did neither.
There’s no second-hand section at this store, although there is a “bargain books” table in the back, somewhat randomly. There’s no discernible theme to the bargain books, but they’re there, and they’re cheap: a Jesmyn Ward book I was looking at was $7.87.
Besides staff recommendations, I’m mostly interested in whether or not I could successfully read half a book while sitting in said bookstore. (This was a hobby of mine right when I moved to New York. I lived near the Union Square bookstore and would treat myself by sitting upstairs on the floor, usually somewhere in the travel section, and reading a whole book. I like to think of it as a lovable form of theft.)This one is a solid no. First of all, there are no chairs on the main floor, which…what? What do you want me to do, kneel on the floor and read my books? Second, it’s a quiet bookstore, and the way the cash register is centrally located gives the main floor a slight panopticon energy. There are technically a few chairs on the lower floor, which is all kids books. I thought about sitting and reading there, but look at it. It just feels wrong, like reading in someone’s garage.
I want to love Book Culture LIC, as it’s my only neighborhood independent bookstore. Unfortunately, I don’t. That’s ok. We’ll live to fight another day.