On March 16th , to welcome Spring Break, the Pub Office hosted a Bookstore Tour, where students met up and visited three bookstores in the area. The trip consisted of discovering McNally Jackson at the Seaport, Yu and Me Books in Chinatown, and Bluestockings Cooperative on the Lower East Side. Students could explore the area, browse recently published and beloved backlist titles, and talk about their favorite books and new finds.
After meeting up at One Pace Plaza, their first destination was McNally Jackson. It is a beloved independent bookstore by the students from the MS in Publishing at Pace University due to how close it is to campus, the vast selection of national and international titles, and the cozy vibes of its cafe. While walking around the place, browsing their catalog, and discovering new titles, students on the tour were able to leave with some new books on their TBR and some with shopping bags with new titles ready to be read. The journey continued to Yu and Me Books, an independent bookstore in Chinatown. Just 15 minutes away from the first stop, this bookstore offers a wide selection of Asian American titles, displaying new releases, backlist titles, and classics. One of the most interesting titles they encountered there was a special edition of The Art of War by Sun Tzu with an embroidered dragon on its cover. All the students, especially those taking the production class this semester, were very intrigued by the intrinsic cover choice started to wonder how the editor or designer in charge convinced the whole team to do this type of art and were also curious to see the P&L (Profit and Loss Statement) for this title. The last stop of our tour was Bluestockings Cooperative Bookstore on the Lower East Side. It is an independent, queer, and women owned bookstore offering a curated catalog of fiction and nonfiction titles and a space for minorities where they can access multiple resources. Students highlighted the place’s interesting layout, unique book selection, and its free book section in the store.
After an afternoon of browsing through different bookstores, getting new recommendations from fellow students and multiple titles finding a new home, students dispersed and went home, ready to start Spring Break and delve into their exciting new reads!
We hope everyone enjoyed this Bookstore Tour and discovered exciting titles! We will be sure to host another tour before the semester is over.