I'm so glad we MET

Insert your favorite New York City song here

Aug 20, 2024

Hello! It is I! Returning from the depths of an unplanned hiatus. Last week I was tired and my joints were achy and I didn’t feel like writing a post so…I didn’t. Truly, nothing more on brand for me.

I haven’t been to New York City in a while. Almost two years, to be precise. I was here last in October of 2022 when my friend Lizzeth got married. I was only there for the weekend, as I was teaching at the time and couldn’t extend my trip.

So I decided I needed to visit. What were the reasons? Books and fancy clothes. Yet, per usual, I had to put my own chaotic spin on them. NYC has many iconic literary landmarks. Could I go there? Sure. Did I go there? Nope.

When I go to New York, I have a specific agenda. As lovely as the Big Apple is, I get overwhelmed quickly. So, I arrive with an itinerary in hand. This time? See some shows, go to the MET to see the Fashion Exhibit, and go to my favorite French bookstore. Along the way, other bookish shenanigans happened.

Book Stop #1

Before I left, I texted my brother, a former New Yorker, and asked him what I knew to be a silly question, but I have anxiety so please bear with me:

“Can you just…walk into the New York Public Library?”

Yes. The answer is yes.

I unintentionally set myself up for success in my hotel choice. I was staying between 5th and 6th Avenues, and only a few blocks away from Grand Central, which really was important to me so I could easily get to my train. But! I was not that far from Madison Square Park or Bryant Park, where the Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library is. I had never been, so a visit was warranted.

*The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library.*

I had breakfast with my friend Lizzeth that morning, and she mentioned that the NYPL often has good exhibits with rare documents. I ended up in the Polonsky Exhibits, which housed a lot of cool and rare artifacts but more importantly, they had the original stuffed animals from Winnie-the-Pooh.

I adore stuffed animals. They are the best, and to see the original 100 Acre Wood stuffies here in a glass case made me sad. They better get weekly time to be taken out and snuggled! So it was in that dangerous frame of mind that I entered the gift shop.

I’m not the biggest Winnie-the-Pooh fan, but the stuff the NYPL had was so cute! I know Winnie-the-Pooh mainly from the Disney cartoons, so figured it wasn’t a bad idea to read the original. Then I saw this sticker about banning books and that made me MORE SAD. Don’t mind me, just over here crying about inanimate objects.

After wandering around and taking nice pictures of early 20th century architecture, it was time to head to….

Book Stop #2

In my continued quest to make things as difficult for myself as humanly possible, I walked from the NYPL to Albertine, which is right by the MET. I’ll get my steps in, she said. It’ll be fine, she said. For those of you keeping track, that is 40 blocks, and it was a hot day and I kept getting waylaid by large groups of Italian tourists. My people, I can never escape them 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻1

I was on a mission, and that mission was to get to Albertine.

Albertine is the largest French language bookstore in the United States. It is housed in a mansion, the Payne Whitney museum, and is part of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US.2 It’s also gorgeous. I even own two of their Christmas ornaments.3

*Interior of Albetine and the Payne Whitney Museum.*

When I lived in and around Boston, my go to for French books was Schoenhof’s. It was a brick and mortar store right behind Harvard Square, and I bought all of my French textbooks there. Most of the major universities in the area also used Schoenhof’s, too. Sadly, Schoenhof’s closed in 2017, after 161 years in service, because the rent had gotten too high.4 They exist online, and I have ordered books from them since, but nothing compares to actually walking through a bookstore to shop for your books. Brookline Booksmith has a small (but mighty!) French section, but nothing beats Albertine.

*Albertine’s Zodiac Ceiling, which they are known for.*

Now, the 40 block walk in the heat must have done something to my head because I walked into Albertine and lost my damn mind. Within 8 minutes I had 12 books, and I wasn’t letting any of them go. I walked up to the second floor to enjoy the ceiling and cool down a bit, and I realized there was no way I was getting all of these books back home to Rhode Island, so I did the only sensible thing: I bought a tote bag to carry them all in.

*The damage. Tote bag sold separately and now hiding elsewhere.*

What thrilled me the most about this whole adventure was not getting to stock up on French books; no. When I got to the till, the woman started speaking to me in French. Right off the bat. Zero hesitation. I’m not sure why this was surprising to me: I had a literal mountain of French books in my hands, but your girl’s spoken French is rusty, so the fact that this woman assumed I could speak French immediately made my heart warm. The fact that I was able to reply without hesitation made me even happier.

After checking out and putting all my new books in a tote bag, it was time for…

(Almost) Book Stop #3

Near Albertine is the Neue Galerie, a museum that features German and Austrian art from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Lizzeth also mentioned that they had a great cafe so I stopped in for cake and sparkling orange juice. It’s all about ~balance~

The Neue Galerie is known for having “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” by Gustav Klimt, more famously known as “The Lady in Gold.” The museum is also nice because they do not allow pictures, so it was refreshing to just look at art without worrying about documenting it.

*This is a reproduction of The Lady in Gold in the basement.*

This almost became book stop #3 because the Galerie had an exhibit on German expressionism, which is a niche interest of mine. The first exhibit I saw of German expressionism was in Paris when I studied abroad. Then I saw one in LA when I lived there. And both times, my reaction was, ah yes this is a thing I like. Can’t explain it, don’t know why. So I almost bought a book on it, but didn’t because it’s from Taschen and was large and I can order it online and I was already carrying around 12 books.

After a long day of lookinh at art and eating very good food, I went to see a show, then went to bed. I had to get up early for Sunday for…

Book Stop #4

Again, this wasn’t supposed to be book stop #4, but who am I to argue with the ways of the Universe.

I got up and got to the MET before it opened to see the Fashion Exhibit. You know, the thing that the MET Gala is actually supposed to be about. I had tried going on Saturday, but there were way too many people and I had to make sure I saw my play. Though I forgive them because the ladies at the information desk thought I was 18.

I was one of the first people through, and it was beautiful! I did really enjoy it, and honestly could have cared less about the sensory parts. I just wanted to see fancy clothes.

Once I was done with the exhibit, I wandered through the Persian section and realized just like with German Expressionism, I love Mughal Jalis. I cannot even begin to explain my aesthetic interests to you, because I don’t understand them all myself. I took a bunch of pictures of those and also all the blue tiles.

*Jalis were often used as room dividers, and were ornately carved during the Mughal period.*

So, it was then time to go to the gift shop for no other reason than to go to the gift shop and whoops I ended up with two books.

The first, the Walt Disney one, I grabbed on sight. The second is about John Singer Sargent, whom I also have a deep and abiding love for. Every single painting I have ever looked at and said, yup, I like that without hesitation has been a John Singer Sargent.

The only issue with this is now I have even more coffee table books to get through as part of my 2024 bookish resolutions. I might have to adjust my original 2024 book goal - I said I’d read all of the coffee table books I own. I didn’t anticipate adding more coffee table books to that pile.

I then got on a train to head home, and the Amtrak curse struck again because Amtrak is never on time, and I was surrounded by an Italian family who truly acted like they had never been on a train before and it was not delightful. But I made it home in one piece with lots more books and a successful weekend behind me.

Moral of the story: go on weekend trips to cities where all you do is look at art and buy books.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, I will be making one change going forwards. I am going to be combining parts of my weekly roundup into the Tuesday emails, so there will only be one post a week for now. Truly, I am overwhelmed with the amount of ~life~ going on at the moment, so while I’d love to do two posts a week, I simply cannot keep up. And what’s the point of doing this if it’s not fun? Realistically, I want to work more on my novel edit, and I can’t do that if I feel like I ‘owe’ this newsletter more posts.

So what I will preserve for now: Mug Moments and my truly abysmal track record of my No New Books™️ challenge. I’ll revisit this once I’ve gotten more of my edit done.

Mug Moment of the Week

This blue nondescript looking mug actually used to say ‘Tufts’ on it - my alma mater and the home of the best college mascot. (Go Jumbos!)5 I got this mug while I was in college, so needless to say it’s been around the block a few times and why the lettering is worn off. It’s still a good mug, though, and I’m loath to let it go. Pictured with the new home of my Please Don’t Ban Me sticker. I’m now going to cry every time I look at my water bottle.

No New Books™️ Challenge

Scene: a woman, in her darkened office, lit by one IKEA lamp and cooled by a noisy window unit, giggles at the insane number of books she has acquired on her recent travels.

It’s me. I’m the scene.

I was very lax about my tabulating recently, as I knew I was going to be traveling and that I’d buy books. Albertine alone was enough to throw off a whole month. And I’m doing The Artist’s Way and I have to take myself on weekly artists dates and there’s an independent bookstore nearby that’s closing (curse you, bridges!)6 so obviously I had to go visit.

Anyways, let’s just start over, shall we?

Streak to Beat: 50 days (January 1st - February 19th)
Last streak: 12 days (June 28th - July 8th)
Current streak: 1 day (Today - Present)

Now that the bookish travel is over, I think I have a real shot at catching that 50 day mark from earlier in the year. Thank goodness there are more than 50 days left in 2024. I can hardly wrap my head around the fact that it’s almost September, even though September is the best month and has my birthday in it.

What about you? What are your favorite bookish NYC spots? Any place I should go next time I’m in town?

The Chaotic Reader

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