Plenty has been written about New York City’s resurgence in genre bookshops — there’s Love and Legends in Prospect Heights for fantasy, the Twisted Spine in Williamsburg for horror, and children’s-lit-focused Spiral Books in Soho and Words on Warren in Tribeca. But this year also saw a wave of new niche libraries dedicated to architecture, fashion, graphic design, and interiors, where the pleasure of looking is the point. Often without street-facing signage and tucked inside an office building, at the back of a store, and even in someone’s home, these libraries promote themselves through Instagram rather than window displays.
But it’s precisely their if-you-know-you-know setups that add to their appeal, especially for anyone seeking out-of-print, rare, and hard-to-source material. And despite the rarity of the collections, none of these libraries are stuffy or formal — you won’t have to keep your voice down, although you might need to schedule an appointment.
