#49: Shakespeare & Co.

To thine own bookstore be true

The Shop: Shakespeare & Co.

Upper East Side, 939 Lexington Ave

Nestled next to the illustrious Hunter College, Shakespeare & Co. is a cozy book nook with a cafe and large, interesting looking machine that prints books for you (more on that later). Shakespeare & Co. First some quick info– no, it’s not a theater centric bookstore like the Drama Book Shop; no, it’s not owned by the same folks who run the iconic Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, though the name is a tribute; and yes, it is the same owners as the Upper West Side Shakespeare & co, though the vibe here is more low key. This store has graced the neighborhood since the early 1980s and has a really comfy vibe. The selection goes for breadth over depth– there are a lot of authors represented, especially for fiction, but not a ton of titles for each author. The cafe seems very calm and comfy though it was not open on my three afternoon visits. But what about that book machine?? The Espresso Book Machine is a crazy cool technology that can print and bind books for you on the spot, from licensed copyrighted titles to public domain books. I have not had the luxury of time to get a book printed on demand but I will definitely be returning to try it out.

As a Hunter grad student who’s been mostly remote these past two years, I fantasize about the in-person grad life I could have had posted up at Shakes between classes, sipping iced matchas, reading Dickens, editing papers, the dream. I didn’t get too many chances to do this so far but you know what they say– the Upper East Side is only a decently long bike ride away.

What I got:

The Hollow Ones

Y’all I’m a freak for Guillermo Del Toro– I even love his two most hated films Pacific Rim and Nightmare Alley (I actually like, really love them). I had no idea he wrote books as well, so I was psyched to find The Hollow Ones, a horror/mystery/thriller novel co-written by Chuck Hogan. This is a real cool looking paperback from Grand Central publishing with a cover that reminds me of Saul Bass intros to Hitchcock films. It’s also volume one of “The Blackwood Tapes,” which sounds pretty scary and cool.