McNally Jackson

When I started writing this blog in the Fall of 2017, I made a list of all the New York City bookstores I wanted to document.

I’ve since worked my way through many of those shops – eavesdropping on conversations at Housing Works, lurking creepily around Books are Magic, and swooning over Albertine Books, among others. Yet my to-visit list grows longer by the day. In my over-scheduled life of new Mom demands and old work demands, there are simply more bookstores than there is free time to visit them. I have to be discerning. 

But even the most selective edit of the city’s great bookstores deserves to have McNally Jackson on it. It’s one of my New York touchstones. And apparently, I’m not alone in my love for this place; last year Time Out cited McNally Jackson as one of 50 reasons that New York is the best place in the world.

So what’s to love? This bookstore, in its own unassuming way, pops with pleasure for people who truly love books. It has a distinctive labyrinth layout – full of dead ends, nooks, and quiet places to let your mind wander. Those out-of-the-way spots usually have seats you can curl up in, and if not, there’s a giant community table in the basement where I’ve often spread out armfuls of potential purchases for detailed examination. McNally Jackson is subtly set up in a way that encourages browsing and discovering – books synopses handwritten on cue cards, a deep selection of niche subjects such as ‘digital culture’ and ‘writer and artist biographies,’ and lots of books displayed face-out. Bonus points for the fiction section being organized by country – a true Read and Roam touch.

McNally Jackson’s owner, Canadian ex-pat Sarah McNally (Jackson is her ex-husband’s last name), is the iconoclastic role model we need right now. In an age where independent bookstores tend to succeed by doubling as social spaces, McNally has hewed close to her books-first philosophy. The café in her shop is famously wifi-free. She talked serious shit to the press about her landlord last year when he tried to hike McNally Jackson’s rent from $350,000 to $850,000 annually. And her lifestyle basically epitomizes everything I want for myself, right down to the details – her interest in pens, her dismissive attitude towards self-help books, her preference for getting her news from podcasts.

Earlier this week, I was near McNally Jackson’s original NoLIta outpost and so figured I’d try my hand at replicating McNally’s life. After lunch with a friend, I popped in my headphones and wandered my favorite street in the city – Elizabeth Street – listening to The Daily. I sent some emails and didn’t worry about whether they’d be returned. I visited McNally’s second retail venture – Goods for the Study – and briefly pondered spending $60 on a Japanese “traveler’s notebook.”  I plunked myself down on the stairs of her eponymous bookstore and considered a bunch of books plucked from shelves on a whim. I walked out with A Year in Provence for me and Ada Twist, Scientist for my son. It felt awesome. And it made me – even if just for a few hours – want to ditch my list entirely and become a McNally Jackson monogamist.