location: 31 Third Avenue, New York City
phone number: 212-260-7853
hours: Mon-Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 11am-midnight
payment methods:
directions: East Village

Legend has it that both Richard Hell and Patti Smith worked here and you can feel that sense of importance when you stroll in to this New York institution at midnight after dinner and drinks in the East Village. There’s plenty of interesting books and magazines to look through and there’s no doubt that you will find at least two or three items that you really want but didn’t know existed before you walked in.

Yet I never seem to walk out with them. I’ve been in this store at least forty or fifty times over ten years, but only bought one book. I can’t quite figure out why this is. Certainly, St. Mark’s is expensive. Other than a tiny table of discounted books hidden in a back-cubby, everything is at least list price, with many of their vast selection of art books coming in considerably higher. The famous move is to browse here and order from Amazon. Well, some magazines and small press books that you might not find anywere else are reasonably priced for what they are. My wife has bought a bunch of those so…
Ted Kulczycky