I went to listen to a talk at the New School in Manhattan yesterday. But this post is not about that talk. It’s about something incidental I spotted in our aimless wanderings preceding the event.

It’s about books.

But to understand what I mean you have to listen to my whole rambling story.

I had to take an underground train ride below the Hudson river for about half an hour to cross over to Manhattan from Jersey City.

When I entered the depths of the station on the Jersey City side, bright sunlight was still making the Manhattan skyline shine magnificently across the river. I came out back to the surface of the earth on 6th Avenue at 14th Street on the other side of the river, a bustling thoroughfare full of cars and people and chain restaurants.

I’m used to a certain spacious ambiance around school campuses.  But campuses here in the city are very different. When I came out and entered the street off of 6th Avenue on which the building with the auditorium was located, I was surprised.
Continue reading Possessing books →