Cappuccino With Your Cervantes? Try These City Staples

The bookstore-café combination is one that is essential to New York’s artistic culture. For reasons unknown to most rational beings, the experience of poring over various books of choice can only be enhanced by a perfect cup (or three) of coffee. The following venders can help you achieve this sought-after, shall we say, literary-gastronomic coupling.

Head down to Skyline Books (13 W. 18th St.) for one of the better selections of used fiction in the city. Advertising itself as a seller of “books, rare and well-done,” Skyline has been around for 18 years, and is positively bursting with that independent-store attitude we love so much. “Our specialties are photography, art, out-of-print books, and first editions,” owner Rob Warren said. “In addition, we have a lot of American lit from the ’50s and ’60s.”

Delightfully cramped and filled with unusual texts, the bookstore perpetuates its atmosphere self-consciously, but with the enthusiasm of a much younger store. Shelves of books on topics as disparate as literary criticism and ancient Greece are juxtaposed with copies of used plays and old Hardy Boys box sets. Be careful not to step on Linda the cat or knock over the poster of William S. Burroughs on your way out.

The City Bakery is only a few doors down from Skyline, and offers savory organic food, a great study space, as well as some of the best cookies and pastries in Manhattan. Most importantly, however, The City Bakery’s annual hot chocolate festival, which ends on Feb. 28th, means that its frequenters have the opportunity to try a different flavor of this delicious drink each day. A shot of thick hot chocolate could be just the thing to complement that copy of Steinbeck’s Cannery Row you picked up at Skyline.

Alternatively, to move from the comfortable and musty to the exotic and slightly psychedelic, East Village Books and Yaffa Café, at 99 and 97 St. Marks Place, respectively, provide patrons with an eclectic experience that is not to be missed. East Village Books is decorated with black-and-white photos of authors, charmingly creative handmade signs, and the occasional classic rock poster—as expected, it has an extensive section of music texts, including songbooks and biographies.

The bookstore’s collection of used CDs, while not quite inexpensive, includes some rare world music offerings. Yes, you can find that Tibetan chant music you were searching for here. Ultimately, many of East Village’s clients frequent the store for the relatively bizarre genres it specializes in—science fiction, occult, religion, and new age, to name a few. “Does the mysticism section overlap with the erotica section, by any chance?” a customer was overheard inquiring. The response? “Sure, why not.”

After you’ve had a chance to ogle the sample of Nabokov’s handwriting on sale for a couple of hundred dollars at East Village Books, turn your sights to Yaffa Café. This vaguely Mediterranean, semi-’80s, vegetarian-friendly restaurant is hard to pin down, but it cannot be denied that its lattés are fabulous. In addition, the décor is like nothing you’ve ever seen: the Christmas lights and zebra-print furniture somehow manage not to contradict each other irrevocably, and even the bathroom has mood lighting. In the summer, customers can brunch outside on the picturesque patio.

While the aforementioned bookstores may not satiate your textbook and stationery needs, they are certainly welcome alternatives to the Morningside offerings. At the very least, your chances of finding some great used literature are incomparably higher.