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Published at 1:09pm
Published at 12:53pm
Video
Housing Works Used Book Café
WHY ESSENTIAL:
If we could take one local reading series to a desert island, it would be this bookstore’s. The writers who pass through Housing Works’ doors are a high-minded mix of the establishment and up-and-comers: Lydia Davis, Jonathan Lethem, Samantha Hunt and Dave Eggers, to name a few. And our boy George Saunders is a repeat offender; if anyone could cheer us up when marooned on an islet, it’d be him.
The secret:
Housing Works has secrets aplenty—e.g., there’s a subbasement, stocked with 100,000 extra books, where staffers have been known to get frisky between the covers—but the juiciest ones smack of a more tabloidy, voyeuristic ilk. Not only do celebs shop at the UBC (sightings include Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves and Parker Posey), they donate their books too. Volumes from Salman Rushdie, Woody Allen, Paul Giamatti, Gwyneth Paltrow (who inscribed her name on the sides) and Cindy Sherman have all graced the shelves, and you can tell what Peter Sarsgaard has been up to by what he brings in: war titles when he was filming Jarhead and natural-pregnancy books donated after the birth of his daughter, Ramona. 126 Crosby St between E Houston and Prince Sts (212-334-3324, housingworksbookstore.com)
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D
Thu, Sep 25, at 10:36am
What white people will fall for.
D
Thu, Sep 25, at 10:36am
Kiosk is hilarious. They were selling a package of dried plums for $15 that you can find 3 blocks south at hong kong supermarket for $2.
Rosie Collins
Thu, Feb 07, at 07:31am
I am trying to find Peter Tear! Please forward to him.
adam tobin
Thu, Nov 01, 07, at 7:54pm
Josh, it is true. X is not on the menu.
I am really upset that Time Out printed my secret website for everybody to see. gugunnameable is so secret, you can't even view it on a regular computer -- the secret password is
www.unnameablebooks.net
josh
Thu, Nov 01, 07, at 3:59pm
The concept of this piece, as described, is excellent; the execution is terrible and misleading (per the description, anyway–it would have been a fine article properly described). A tip would be, for example: "order X at Pearl Oyster Bar, it's not on the menu, it's excellent, and you have to request it." Or a reservation password or somesuch.
josh
Thu, Nov 01, 07, at 3:55pm
How is this an "ultra-valuable tip?" It's not even a "tip," it's a piece of trivia.
eyeball hatred
Thu, Nov 01, 07, at 2:05am
url is indeed wrong. gugunameable books sell textbooks.
