#59: McNally Jackson City Point
Motherf**ker you can live at the mall
The Shop: McNally Jackson City Point
Downtown Brooklyn, 445 Gold Street (next to Lululemon)
So I really want to hate on this bookstore because it’s in the mall. I’m a cool millennial, and we buy things in little store fronts with cute backyards, not the mall— especially not the City Point mall, designed to pander to millennials with its funky foodcourt, Alamo Drafthouse, and Trader Joe’s. Ahhh who am I kidding— I love Trader Joe’s and there was a solid stretch of 2019 where I never missed a Weird Wednesday at Alamo. Sometimes it’s nice to be pandered to. Plus, this McNally Jackson is no friggin joke! If you’ve been to McNally’s other locations before, you know the deal— the selection here is awe inspiring. Everything at McNally looks cool, fresh and interesting. Even old guard classics like Arendt or Adorno get aesthet-tastic new covers ready to dazzle Instagram followers or fellow subway riders. The store’s two floors feel labyrinthine, seemingly always another corner leading to another set of shelves in another genre. For someone like me with fairly wide tastes, the browsing experience verges on overwhelming. As Todd Rundgren once sung, there’s always more. Also it’s McNally so there’s Moleskines and fancy pens for days. The kids section upstairs is pretty dang magical, with little kid sized reading books for the next generation to cuddle up with whatever picture book Stacey Abrams wrote this year. My one critique— the graphic novel/manga section, though delicious, is located on the stairway, making for some awkward browsing with others coming up and down.
What I Got:
From Here to There Maze Book
I picked this one out of McNally’s beyond excellent kids section for two of my second graders who are absolutely obsessed with mazes. The mazes in this book are absolutely gorgeous and just challenging enough for to be interesting but not enough to be frustrating— the sweet spot! I’ve only had it for a few days but my students are already obsessed. Pro teacher tip— don’t let them anywhere near the original book! Photocopy pages and this thing will last you forever.