#18: Greelight Bookstore

Blinded by the light

The Shop: Greenlight Bookstore

Fort Greene, BK: 686 Fulton Street

Even with its COVID customer limit, Greenlight Bookstore buzzes with activity. Located among many other Fort Greene shoportunities, Greenlight has long been a favorite of central Brooklynites, it’s eponymous green light guiding you into a surprisingly cavernous storefront. Greenlight has a whole lot of everything— art books, kids books, fiction, plus a whole lot of gifts. You will certainly overhear staff in animated conversation about recent bestsellers! You will want to stay far longer than your 15 minute COVID restriction browsing limit will allow. 

What I got:

New York: A Photographic Journey

This hardcover history book by Jaqueline Goosens and Tom Ronse is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately it’s not mine for long— I got this for my history loving Grandad Joe Fox! He’s not reading as much in his 90s so I figured a book with tons of photos was a good bet.

Images of America: Crown Heights and Weeksville 

This slender and action packed volume by Wilhelmena Rhodes Kelly popped into my life at the perfect time— about two weeks into my work developing a social studies curriculum on Crown Heights history and culture for grad school! This book photographically follows the Brooklyn neighborhood I’ve called home for the past 6 years from the formation of Weeksville, a rare and flourishing free Black community in the 1830s, to the flourishing period of gilded age development that created much of the iconic architecture that stands today.