BOOK SHOPS

[katafei]

Sorry about the caps, but that's exactly how I feel right now!!!!

I've just booked 2 tickets for NYC and I'll be taking my nephew to that impressive city the third of July 2009....

(which means we'll be in New York on the 4th of July, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, so we'll definitely make it a good thing ^_^)

And to stay a little on topic:
My nephew is into manga, so any tips about HUGE book shops in the Big Apple are more than welcome

[richvh]

Are you looking for English translations, or original language? There are a number of Japanese bookstores in and near NYC that sell new (or used, in the case of Book-Off) Japanese language books, including manga.

[katafei]

quick answer...!
Well, Japanese books would be very interesting as well, obviously!!!
But my nephew will only be interested in English ones.....


(At the moment I'm bdding on 'Hikaru no Go' for a very reasonable price on a Dutch bidding site, so fingers crossed....: -)

[richvh]

New York City bookstores
Japanese bookstores in the US

I can't give much in the way of recommendations, not being an NYC resident. I have been to the NYC Book-Off (which is a short way down the street directly across from the NY Public Library main branch main entrance), the NYC Kinokuniya (which was on 49th street across from Rockefeller Center, but I saw somewhere that it was going to move to a cheaper location. Whether they have moved yet or not, I don't know) and the Sanseido that is part of the Mitsuya market complex across the river in Edgewater, NJ.)

[katafei]

Great, Rich, thanks for the links!
They will defintely add to the anticipation fun . . .
I've sort of already decided which hotel we're going to stay in, but I don't have any idea about Manhattan's lay-out yet. It will be lots of fun finding out, though!



Edit: woa, that 'book off' already takes my breath away.......^_^

[richvh]

The second floor of Book Off is nothing but manga. Japanese novels are in the basement. (I picked up all the "Twelve Kingdoms" books I didn't yet have there.) The ground floor has everything else (including some English language stuff.)

[Harisenbon]

The second floor of Book Off is nothing but manga. Japanese novels are in the basement. (I picked up all the "Twelve Kingdoms" books I didn't yet have there.) The ground floor has everything else (including some English language stuff.)

And if I remember correctly, there's a lot of stuff in the basement as well.

Asashi Books and Book-Off are (were?) within 10 minutes walk of Grand Central Station, so they're very easy to get to.
The largest used bookstore in NY (like 3 miles of books or something insane like that) is "The Strand," in Greenwich Village.
In fact, just hanging around in the Village will put you in the area of a large number of great bookstores.

Have a great time in NY!

[katafei]

I'm sooo looking forward to this trip ^^
Unfortunately, the manga exhibition at the Japanese society has just ended

but I just found out there is a Japanese film festival starting soon...

[astaroth]

I lived in NYC for six years and the Japan Society is where I started learning Japanese: it's a great place holding diverse activities from language and calligraphy courses to exhibitions and film festivals. It's probably the place I'm missing the most of the city.
About bookstores: the Asashi bookstore is good but sells mostly towards native speakers, so it's a great place to find Japanese novels and manga in Japanese at a reasonable price, not so much for their English translation.
Another Japanese bookstore is Kinokuniya, which just recently (last year) moved to a new three stories shop behind the New York Public Library in Bryant Park. I really like Kinokuniya, though a bit pricey: I'd suggest having a tea and dorayaki on the second floor overlooking the park.
Strand is good but more for English novels, comics and books in general. You might find the occasional book in a foreign language but you have to look for it (I found a Stefano Benni's novel once but that's it). I don't remember seeing any manga in the Strand but I wasn't looking for them. Next to Strand on the other side of 11th St is the Forbidden Planet which once had manga too but I went there recently and they disappeared; you might want to ask there if they moved all manga and related to another store.

That's all it comes up to my mind now ...

[astaroth]

(which means we'll be in New York on the 4th of July, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, so we'll definitely make it a good thing ^_^)

A little tip for the fourth of July.
A great place to watch the fireworks is from the Brooklyn Height Promenade. It's going to be packed so you have to be there early, very early -- make it for 1 hour, 1 hour and half (at least) before the fireworks.
The promenade is on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge, a little south from DUMBO. A good way to get there, since I'm assuming you're going to be in Manhattan and not in the other boroughs of New York, is through the Bridge, of course! There (in Brooklyn) you will have plenty of places where to eat, for instance an institution is the Grimaldi's Pizzeria, whose pizza is quite good (I'm Italian if that could be an indication of some sort). Or if you want something sweet I'd suggest the Jacques Torres Chocolaterie, which is quite hard to explain how to get there, so here a link.