A Walk Can be both Delightful and Disturbing at the Same Time...

One Upon a Time...

Jane and I had a tradition, way back when -- each year, we would meet my mother in New York City, for a hike. We would meet at Grand Central, make our way down to The Strand (12th and Broadway), and thence back up Fifth, hitting every bookstore along the way. It would take all afternoon, and we'd wind up with about as many books as we could carry.

It wasn't quite Sacred Tradition, but it was pretty close for a while there: it was immediately after the first such expedition that I proposed to her, on the grounds that we were clearly compatible, due to sheer mutual bibliomania if nothing else.

Facing a quiet evening (the Scala Days conference having nothing for me to do), I decided to do a somewhat extended version of that walk as my evening constitutional. Starting at the conference site on 52nd, I made it most of the way down -- not quite to the Strand, but getting to 14th before reaching the end of my time-box (since I wasn't planning on dinner until I got back, I was being strict about my timing), and thence back up to my hotel on 49th.

It was a fine trek -- about four miles according to Google Maps -- disturbed by only one thing. I realized, about 2/3 of the way through, that I'd only seen one bookstore...

... and it was an Amazon brick-and-mortar outlet.

And on the one hand, I can't really blame anybody for this, at least no more than myself. I buy most of my books on Kindle these days, and wouldn't trade that -- the convenience is wonderfully freeing. But damn, I miss all those bookstores...