#28: Mercer Street Books & Records

The Shop: Mercer Street Books & Records

Greenwich Village, Manhattan: 206 Mercer Street

Chill, nondescript, and charming, Mercer Street Books & Records slings used books and records in a surprisingly vast space tucked away behind the Angelika Film Center on Mercer street. The frills of this bookstore are practically non existent— aside from the de rigueur community bulletin boards and some portraits of authors hung up by the ceiling, Mercer is nothing but books, books, records, and more books. The selection here is absolutely fantastic, curated from all sorts of lower Manhattanite move outs and estate sales. I especially loved all the books by and about the downtown rockers that gave the neighborhood its legendary status. You can find something cool in a five minute quick browse or spend hours trolling the shelves for that special find. Though only 30 years old, the store has that nostalgic charm of a chiller, broker lower Manhattan. If you can’t come by for a browse, throw a couple bucks at their GoFundMe to keep this gem in business: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mercer-street-books-needs-a-hand

What I got

The Sick Bag Song

Nick Cave is not American or a New Yorker, but lives the ethos of NYC’s downtown rockers far more than most. Cave’s been part of my musical DNA for so long I don’t even remember becoming a fan, but I do tear up a little every time I hear “Into My Arms.” I’m excited to see how this legendary lyricist’s words resonate without music on poetry form.

t zero

I was only going to buy one thing but the carousel of pulpy paperbacks near the door cast a spell on me. I’ve been especially obsessed with vintage paperback covers lately since discovering the Vintage Paperbacks and Retro Sci-fi Covers Reddit pages. Y’all know I’m a Calvino devotee and couldn’t pass short story collection up.