From MoMA, which is at 53rd street, to get to the Strand Bookstore, located between 12th and 13th street just south of Union Square, you take the E or M line downtown to 14th Street, and then switch to the L line which brings you to Union Square. Going underground at one place and emerging at another point in the maze seems to defy the laws of physics, like a wormhole in a science fiction novel that transports you instantly across galaxies. You lose the sense of time (perhaps one reason why people keep fiddling with their phones), and when you emerge back at street level a few moments pass before you gather your bearings, and regain a sense of where you are.
By the time I entered the Strand Bookstore, my head was spinning: impressions from the afternoon had left me saturated. In this land of excess New York was like a city of excess, overwhelming to the visitor. I wished to escape into a world of books. But Strand was another form of excess.
Wandering about tall shelves filled with titles familiar and obscure, I could not help wondering if this wasn’t an exemplar of literature as commodity. The choice was staggering. Who needs all these books? Does our culture demand it? Or does the publishing industry simply produce supply, in abundance, and try to find ways to sell its surplus?
On another day, in another mood, I may have responded differently, but on this day I was swamped. Leaving the store, I sent an SMS to the friend who had enthusiastically suggested the Strand Bookstore to me:
“It was obscene. The world has too many books, too many published writers. We should stop publishing books for five years. Give the readers some time to catch up!”
I then took the stairs underground to the Union Square station.
Parmanu 
I think that in a busy, dynamic place like New York sometimes “the surrender to machines” represents an opportunity for escapism – I know that is part of the reason why my Kindle is always with me on public transport!
Hmm, yes, it’s a good way to be alone in a crowd.
“It was obscene. The world has too many books, too many published writers. We should stop publishing books for five years. Give the readers some time to catch up!”
This is EXACTLY how I feel! I have roughly 100 unread books at home and I’ve just ordered 11 more and there are six others I want and I just feel breathless and STRESSED.
This is so true. Writers, editors, publishers – all trying to sell sell sell! The best of books are lost in the midst of hundreds of average skill. One has to sift through heaps to find quality and all this arbit junk is just putting the overall intelligence of humankind down.
Yes, the book stores all over big cities does overwhelm the reader. How to select, read?
Thanks of sharing these wonderful pages. Enjoyed going through it.
You probably can’t know what a pleasure it is to look at this (to me most) extraordinary city through your eyes and head, especially since I know you’ve done the same through mine. It is overwhelming, sometimes, and frightening in its excess and instances of human isolation, self-imposed and not. I’m especially struck by your observations about Apple and the masters and slaves; by the photograph of the homeless man in that particular subway; by the $4.95 price of looking smart in the subway, reading Eliot: this week’s special, no doubt. And by the quiet I felt when you were in the museum, in contrast to the rest of this fine essay.
In Montreal we too have our underground city – we even call it that – our “twin” to the city above, but it’s filled with shops and restaurants and brightly lit: just another mall that gives onto the clean, bright subway and its singing trains on rubber wheels. When I’m in New York I always think that subway is somehow more honest, as a dark reflection of the wealth and glitter above.
Reblogged this on PORTAFOLIO. BITACORA DE UN TRANSFUGA. 2000.2010.