I got home around 11:00 last night. Don picked me up at the station and I have to say that the day took it out of me. I’m very tired lately, due I’m sure, to all that’s happened, and if you’re not used to going into the city on a daily basis, it can really take it out of you. It’s sort of like exercise; if you’re doing it every day, your ‘city muscles’ get trained and are in better shape. If you go in every once in a while, it’s much more tiring.

My city muscles are out of shape and on top of that, my ankle is not used to all that walking. I plotted my route to and from Port Authority and the subway station near The Mysterious Bookshop so that I only had to do a little walking, but the route to the theater consisted of long city blocks and by that point in the day, my ankle was hurting.

I took off my shoes on the homeward-bound bus ride and fell asleep.

Some pictures from the day (most of which were on Instagram, so you may be seeing double):

Oh, hello, Mysterious Bookshop! I’ve missed you!

Everywhere you look, books and more books. A staff that is so knowledgeable it makes my head spin. I overhear conversations between customers and the staff and learn of new authors that sound intriguing. I was there for quite a while and witnessed several of these conversations – where a customer would come in looking for something, whether is was a certain style of writing or something more specific like ‘a police procedural’ or wonder what book in a certain author’s many published books was the best to start with – and every time the staff knew exactly what to recommend and why.

My dream job? I think so. I asked one of the guys if it was indeed his  dream job and he said yes. If I lived there, I’d be lobbying for an additional staff member – me.

Wouldn’t you like to sit in this chair and thumb through some books?

The Mysterious Bookshop was founded by Otto Penzler and he is very well-known and respected. He has a publishing imprint and also commissions what are called Bibliomysteries – short in length, written by well-known authors. The paperback versions cost a few dollars. I bought a couple of them yesterday because, let’s face it, mysteries centered around books are simply delicious.

Early morning photo, sorry for the lighting.

I also bought these:

Susan Hill, obviously, and one of those conversations I overheard sang the praises of Helene Tursten, a Swedish author who has written a series centered on Detective Inspector Huss. This is the first book in the series and it was recommended to a customer (another book blogger) who purchased it. I thought to myself, darn it! That copy is gone. I’ll have to write down the author’s name and look for it on Amazon. But somehow during the next 30 minutes or so, as if by magic, one of the staff members replaced it with another copy and I snagged it.

I knew, by the way, that they would have all of Susan Hill’s books on the shelf – and they did.

Everyone got a free gift – a Christmas mystery commissioned by the bookshop.

After my visit, I had to kill a couple of hours and when you have an ankle to baby, that isn’t easy. Normally, I would walk several blocks because I love walking, but I knew that would be foolish. I did manage to walk a few blocks and take a picture of Times Square for you.

Insanely crowded, huge walls of video everywhere, way, way too touristy for my taste. (I miss the Times Square of the 70’s and 80’s. Times Square has been what I call Disneyfied. It’s like a theme park with lots of ads. ) There was a large police presence, which has been increased due to the threat of terrorism. They were everywhere. You see the same thing in the train and bus stations – lots of police and National Guard. I’m grateful for their presence.

The show, which is still in a sort of workshop stage, was good but needs some work and hopefully I’ll find some time to help out. I’m headed off to Hartford in January, so I’m not sure just how much free time I’ll have.

Happy Tuesday.