Books about NY for NYers

Recently I was in a New York section of a Barnes and Noble. Though there are plenty of guides for tourists, there is also a plethora of books for residents. Do you have any of these? Which do you recommend? On my end, I like Tea in the City: New York.

I like Queens: What to Do, Where to Go (and How Not to Get Lost) in New York's Undiscovered Borough by Ellen Freudenheim, as a way to remind New Yorkers that there is life, & interesting stuff, & culture, outside of Manhattan. ;P

Here are a few of my favorites:

Cafe Life New York: An Insider's Guide to the City's Neighborhood Cafes;
The Curious Shopper's Guide to New York City: Inside Manhattan's Shopping Districts;
The Cheap Bastard's Guide to New York City: A Native New Yorker's Secrets for Living the Good Life--For Free!;
New York's 50 Best Places to Enjoy Dessert (I think this is out of print);
Garden Guide: New York City ; &
Meat Me in Manhattan: A Carnivore's Guide to New York

and, of course:

New York City's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Five Boroughs

I much prefer history to guides; hence my New York section would include The Island at the Center of the World, and could be expanded to include The Hudson: A History.

But then, I could get a few things like The AIA Guide to New York City and An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn. (One of my parents is an architect; that's the non-librarian side of the family.)

On the history note, though nearly present day, Subwayland: Adventures in the World Beneath New York by Randy Kennedy was a great read. If you ride the subway a lot, there's a good chance you'll recognize one of the people or places he writes about.

I just recently visited THe Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn...it is an interesting, mostly overlooked museum experience in NYC.

When I was there, it was fairly interesting, but kinda small. But this was some fifteen-plus years ago. It could very well have grown since then.

still small but quite nostalgic...a guided tour helps.

Downtown: My Manhattan by Pete Hamill a must read for any dyed in the wool NYer.

I don't own the book or subscribe to the mag (I'm a TONY guy) but the website is great. Blackbook guide to New York http://www.blackbookmag.com/

^^Yes, me too. Time Out New York is *the* go-to resource for NYC happenings. I left the Mother City (i.e. New York) a year ago for a job in California, and I still maintain my subscription.

For film lovers:

Captured: A Film & Video History of the Lower East Side

You can buy it at Bluestockings (in the LES)

My favorite guidebook is the Not for Tourists guide which is basically a small book with lots of maps. It's definitely for locals.

For history, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is a very informing read. Waterfront by Phillip Lopate and Rats by Robert Sullivan are entertaining first-person accounts of aspects of the city with quite a bit of history mixed in.

It seems like there are millions of novels, including Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Emperor's Children, and Fury to name a few.

And as a bit of a periodical junkie, I couldn't live without my subscriptions to Time Out New York, The New York Review of Books, and the New Yorker.

Guides go out of print so quickly, and I haven't bought a book on NYC restaurants since menupages.com was launched. My favorite book on New York is Molly O'Neill's New York Cookbook -- all of the recipes are sure things, and it's a delight to read the mini essays on Ebinger's chocolate cake, Delmonico's, lox, etc...

New York's 50 Best Places to Find Peace and Quiet (Like the other "50 Best" title above, might also be out of print; highly recommended as an antidote following the book recommended in post # 4.)

The Park and the People (There are other good books on Central Park, but I think this is the place to start.)

The Other Islands of New York City (Then for a fictional tour, I Am Thinking of My Darling...)

Secret Places of Staten Island

And, of course, for book lovers, The New York Public Library

>>14 literarysarah:

My favorite guidebook is the Not for Tourists guide which is basically a small book with lots of maps. It's definitely for locals.

Unless you don't live in one of the chosen neighborhoods. Then you're SOL.

I liked the Manhattan Users Guide, but they never seem to have put out an updated edition, so I doubt it's of much use by now (it was from 1996).

Brooklyn Was Mine is a great compilation of poetry and such by authors from Brooklyn or that have been there and fell in love with Brooklyn.

Being a displaced Brooklynite myself it really touched on my love and fondness for my home sweet home.

A great resource is The Encyclopedia of New York City edited by Kenneth Jackson. Not just another Manhatan centric guide for the tourists. History of many outer borough neighborhoods, forgotten events, and memorable but not always remembered people. As for fiction, if you grew up in the New York of the 70s and early 80s - on the skid down - you may enjoy Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem. See you on the subway sometime, looking up from my book to see what you're reading.