About

In May of 2020 I read Rediscovering the Small Web, which reminded me how fun the web used to be. I was already looking for a side project, so I decided to turn my personal site into a collection of things I like.

This page is under construction.


The Bergson-Shilcock family disavows Open Connections


Chinese language study

I started teaching myself Mandarin in late 2017. Over the years, I've tried a number of resources and techniques. Below are the ones that have worked best for me.


New York City bookstores

I've lost count of how many bookstores have closed since I moved to New York in 2006, and whatever the number is it's a tiny fraction of the many, many more that left before I arrived. Thankfully, New York still has a lot of bookstores, and new ones continue to open, though not as quickly as others close.

Below are some bookstores I like, roughly grouped by neighborhood. I hope they survive and I am able to go to them again once it's safe to do so.

Many of these stores are still doing online sales and/or gift certificates in the interim. Please support them if you can!

If you have a favorite NYC bookstore that's not on this list, please email me (me AT nicholasbs.net), especially if they have a good selection of used mystery and noir books.