Can we talk about the fucking shithole cancer upon this earth that is The© Strand© Bookstore© in New© York© City©
>loud
>crowded
>cramped
>everybody walking slowly
>shitty unfriendly staff
>embodiment of toxic book-nerd culture
What the fuck went so wrong? Every time I go here I feel like blowing my brains out.
What are some New York bookstores that don't deep throat big dog turds? I like Alabster but it doesn't have much of a selection
I only checked out the discount books outside when I lived in NYC. The books inside seemed grossly overpriced and not worth reading, generally.
don't go there
Someone actually recommended this place to me.
Book-Off is far superior to The Strand
Thanks for the recommendation.
What's to stop people from taking books shelved outside without paying?
Human decency, I guess?
Have you not seen this sort of thing before? So many stores in my area have wares outside the actual shop. I guess the draw it has for potential customers outweighs the risk of someone shoplifting.
They're like a dollar or two. If you're that much of a piece of shit that you'll steal something that's $2, they probably figure you need it more than they need the money.
untermenschen
I'm hoping they branch out more than the US and Japan, really liked it when I visited, mostly went for RAW manga volumes and to see what I could find but they've got a lot of novels and literature on sale at very good prices.
Book Off is pretty good but I they give you pennies when you bring in your books.
Sounds like every "cool" bookstore I've ever been to. It almost seems like there's an inverse relationship between the quality of selection/price/staff knowledge, and the social value/"look at me buying books" factor/chances you'll see someone attractive.
The best bookstores are weird and slightly out of the way and are run by autistic bibliophiles who have totally supplanted social interactions with books. This scares away normies but makes for a much more interesting browsing/buying experience.
The types of person who would steal a book from an outside shelf is not the type of person who reads books
>toxic book-nerd culture
People who say stuff like this are almost always the actually "toxic" part of a community or sub-culture.
I've never been here or heard of it but now that I see a thread full of contrarians dismissing a seemingly well-known bookstore because of the "culture" I'll be sure to check it out, thanks for the heads up
>Exactly because YOU dislike this thing, I'M gonna like it! You contrarian!
I haven't even participated in this thread, just skimming by on the front page and wanted to tell you you're a retard.
>tfw literally stolen and read dozens of books.
Why would I pay to a big company when I can just steal?
Only the garbage is outside anyway. And why bother stealing books if you can just pirate every ebook nowadays.
niggers don't read books
>be a racist
>think you're smarter than other people
lmao
That's racist user. They can use them as free rolling paper for joints.
>not being racist
>2016
lmao
>not pretending to be a leftist-cuck to get with all their loose women
lmao@u
This. Just dumpster dive at the goodwill and you'll get the same shit without the bad karma a couple of months later.
The staff was nice when I was there but everything else I agree with. Another weird thing was the selection, they had a lot of books I had never heard of but at the same time didn't have a a single copy of some other things that I wanted and are pretty common even in Barnes or BAM.
When I used to live in NYC two years ago I would steal from tons of places all the time.
The Strand
Housing Works
Book Off
Barnes and Noble
I had a Russian friend that stole a collection of Walter Benjamin essays but forgot to take it out of his bag and actually waked back into the strand with it weeks later still with the sticker on and was caught walking out when the alarm went off. He got banned and had to pay for the book, or rather I paid for the book and he paid me back.
Housing Works was the easiest to steal from. No security whatsoever but I eventually started to feel bad because they're not a big chain. Still, it's not hard to steal from other places.
I stopped now though. Not really out of moral concern but because it could seriously negatively impact my life to have a "crime of dishonesty" on my record and generally that I was stealing things worth under $50.
This is what happens without god. There's no reason for anyone to be good other than violent repercussions.
I think religion is useful as a communal tradition but please save your proselytizing for someone that cares.
I read crime and punishment just like everyone else. People swayed by it seem never to have understood the core of nihilism anyway.
Nice meme
You didn't understand Crime and Punishment.
Not necessarily
Crime and Punishment is didactic. It's a moral lesson meant take Nietzschean philosophy to an extreme and prove its inferiority to traditional religious virtues.
It's not particularly hard to understand. Are you so stubborn that you assume no one can have read, understood and disagree with its central argument?
>cramped
>read as "creampied"
Boy, do I have a problem with porn?
Is this the store that's closing?
Funny enough I've lived in nyc all my life and tend to never go to these 'iconic' sites. We were more or less taught to use the public library.
>tfw only independent bookstores in my city are shit with no selection
It's not the central argument.
What do you think the central argument is?
Because you want to support the author maybe? Stealing physical books isn't the same thing as pirating digital copies. It actually costs money to produce, ship and sell a physical book.
It isn't closing. I buy enough 30 year old mass market editions there to know.
>he hasn't read The Savage Detectives
... I'm jealous, I guess. It was shit. I like 2666 a lot, but at the same time I hate it because it led me to waste my time reading TSD.
García Madero pls.