Free Republic

The Strand Bookstore, a New York City icon home to 2.5 million books and 92 years of storefront history, was commemorated by the city and chosen as a historic city landmark this week. Nancy Bass Wyden, the store's third-generation owner, isn't taking it as a compliment. "Some people have congratulated me and I said, 'No, this is no congratulations. This is a punishment,' " Bass Wyden tells NPR's Scott Simon. Bass Wyden feels that the designation is counterproductive. "We don't need the city to come in and just put red tape and bureaucracy and take control over decision-makings of the...

I feel sacrilegious for invoking such numinous phrases, but it’s hard to think of a better personal metaphor for the Strand, New York City’s iconic bookstore located in Greenwich Village. Visiting the store is its own pilgrimage for any starved bibliophile. In a world of Amazon shipping and the $.01 paperback, Strand is an oasis, offering a rarified shopping experience that slakes our need for spontaneity through the adventitious wandering of stacks. The atmosphere begs for browsing books, both old and new. It’s anonymous and crowded, like a self-contained city. And, as everything else in our harried age, it’s in...