I’ve been meaning to tell you about this book store for ages. Ever since I returned from my October trip (Month of Me!) trip to New York City, that is. I already told you about Spoonbill and Sugartown Booksellers, but Kerry and I also visited another independent book store by the name of McNally Jackson Books.

Photo credit: Yvonne Brooks. Photo source: McNally Jackson Books.

McNally Jackson Books is in the NoLita district of Manhatten, “NoLita” meaning “north of Little Italy.” As you can see in the map below, it is also close to a really interesting district called the Bowery, which I’ve written about here.

The store has a large main floor, then stairs to an equally large basement floor. I could have spent days in there. But that’s not saying much, I guess, since I could spend days in virtually any book store. But this store has a very large selection of very interesting books, all displayed so nicely and with conveniently located chairs here and there. Plus, the staff have a lot of personality. (If you don’t believe me, check the store’s twitter feed.)

And if that’s not enough. There’s the cafe. The very, uber-cool cafe.

Photo credit: Maggie Soloday Photography. Photo source: ArchDaily.

There is another element to this store that makes it unique — there is a library-quality printing machine right in the store! This means that you can self-publish or if you can’t find a particular title because demand is just not large enough to warrant large print runs …. hey, print it on-demand. It’s basically the complete opposite of an e-reader.

Photo credit and source: McNally Jackson Books.

But my favourite part of this entire gorgeous store was the children’s section in the basement. It was soooo cosy … it made me want to be a little girl again, and just re-live that first spark of love with books! Here is a photo I snapped from my phone. In the background, you can see the giant book in green. And then in the foreground, the large mushroom table and smaller mushroom stools.