#25: Casa Magazines

NYC's Mecca of magazines

The Shop: Casa Magazines

West Village, Manhattan: 22 8th Avenue

I recently visited Iconic Magazines and thought “dang, that’s a lot of magazines.” I had no idea what I was in for. Casa Magazines is a tiny corner storefront in the West Village with more magazines than one could read in several lifetimes of doctors office visits or subway delays. Casa is a cornucopia of copy, with over 3,000 magazine titles in stock. If you’re a magazine person like me, you will be overwhelmed by the options in front of you. Any magazine you could imagine is somewhere in these walls. Mainstream news? They got that. Highbrow glossy fashion stuff? They got that. Literary journals? Yeah. Sports? Yeah. Porn, straight, gay, or ambigious? Oh yeah. Many titles drew me in, such as the immaculately designed Raquet tennis magazine (I’ve never even played tennis?) and Popeye: Magazine for City Boys (I don’t know how to read Japanese?) If you’re not a magazine person and want to support, Casa was one of the local businesses featured in the Neighborhood Spot merch series, which are all pretty dang cool.

What I got:

The Happy Reader Summer 2021 Issue 

Overwhelmed by the choices ahead of me, I landed on this one based purely on the cover story-- Moses Sumney interviewed by Jia Tolentino!? When one of your favorite contemporary writers interviews one of your favorite contemporary musicians for a niche British literary magazine, it’s a beautiful thing. Turns out this magazine is also a book club... and I’m going to have to read Sabahattin Ali’s Madonna in a Fur Coat to catch up on much of the essays and art in this issue.